PENTICOFF, Lela 1906-1926

PENTICOFF

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 3/31/2015 at 18:54:06

Lela Penticoff Dies Tuesday Eve

Peritonitis After Recent Operation Results Fatally

This community was shocked Tuesday evening last when it became known that Miss Lela Penticoff had died suddenly about 7:30 that evening at Freeport, Ill., where she had been holding a position as a stenographer with the W. T. Rawleigh Medicine Co. since last November.

July 25th last Lela was stricken with appendicitis in an acute form and was operated upon the following day. Her parents were advised of her condition and her mother left at once for Freeport and has been with her daughter ever since.

Lela's condition had been bad from the day of the operation when peritonitis developed and for five weeks everything possible was done for her, but without avail. Her father was summoned to her bedside two weeks ago and both parents were with her when she passed away.

Lela was a great favorite with her employers and her sudden and unexpected death will bring sorrow not only to the relatives but to those with whom she has worked and associated with a Freeport and in Grundy Center.

She was born at Pearl City, Ill., Sept. 11th, 1906, and would have been twenty years of age next Sept. 11th. She graduated with the class of '24 from the Grundy Center High School.

The remains were brought here Wednesday evening and it is expected the funeral services will be held Sunday at 2 o'clock from the Baptist church, provided her brother, John, who lives in San Francisco, reaches here in time.

Obituary next week.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 2 September 1926, pg 1

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Lela Evelyn Penticoff was born Sept. 11th, 1906, at Pearl City, Ill. When six years of age she came with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. S. Penticoff, to Grundy Center, and this city has been her home since.

She was educated in the Grundy Center schools and graduated with the class of '24. Later she took a business course and last November she accepted of a position offered her with the W. T. Rawleigh Medical Co., Freeport, Ill., and since she has been with that company she has been regarded as one of its most valued employees.

July 25th last Lela was taken ill and the following day she submitted to an operation for acute appendicitis. Peritonitis developed soon after the operation and while all that medical skill and loving hands could do for her was done, she lingered for five weeks, growing gradually weaker until death finally relieved her of her suffering on Tuesday August 31st, 1926, at seven-thirty in the evening.

Her mother had been with her since the day following the operation, and two weeks before her death her father went to her and both parents were with her when the final summons came.

Lela was a girl of exceedingly cheerful and happy disposition and her seemingly untimely death has brought sorrow to many homes in this vicinity where she was a general favorite.

Besides her parents she leaves three sisters, Arlie and Gladys at home, Mrs. Frank Grabinski, living near here, and two brothers, John of San Francisco, and Theodore, of this city. John arrived here Saturday evening in time for the funeral which was held from the Baptist church at 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon, Rev. David Alexander, pastor of that church, officiating. Interment was in the Grundy Center cemetery.

The abundant floral offerings and the largely attended funeral attested to the high esteem in which Lela was held in this community. The Campfire Girls, of which organization she was a member for years, attended in a body, and the pallbearers were Arthur Mertz, Wilbur Callaway, Bobbie Stevens, Austin Calderwood, Vernon Miller and Claus Dudden, members of her graduating class.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 9 September 1926, pg 1