HEIKENS, Marvin L. 1937-2018
HEIKENS, HOODJER, BUTTON
Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 3/9/2019 at 19:23:22
Marvin Heikens, age 81, of rural Hubbard, IA, was pronounced dead on Monday, October 1, 2018 at Hansen Family Hospital in Iowa Falls, IA.
Born on February 6, 1937 to Harry and Dena (Hoodjer) Heikens he was raised with his two older brothers, Harlan and Don and his two younger siblings Jim and Bev, on the family farm 8 miles southwest of Wellsburg. It was here that Marvin found his love of farming, although early on his main responsibilities were collecting eggs, feeding and bedding down the animals, cleaning stalls and helping with the dairy operation (his least favorite chore).
Marvin attended Pine Creek Country School, a few miles north of the farm near the Steamboat Road and later the Wellsburg High School where he graduated in 1955. It was in high school that he would meet the love of his life, Jean Button, even though she only lived a couple of miles from him. They continued to date until Jean graduated in 1957 and were married at the Ivester Church of Brethren in December of that year.
At the time of their marriage Marvin was working for Junker Dairy in Wellsburg but later went to work for Jean’s aunt and uncle, Pearl and Martin Schwarck on their farm a few miles west of Ivester. In January 1959 while unloading hog feed Marvin’s pant leg got caught on a power takeoff shaft wrapping his leg around the shaft until it chocked off the tractor engine, causing multiple bone breaks to his leg. It was during his months in traction at Grundy Center Memorial Hospital that the couple’s first child, Darold was born. A second son, Dwight, followed in 1961 and a daughter, Dawn, in 1962. In 1963 Marvin began working for the Grundy County Public Works with responsibility primarily for gravel road grading and snowplowing operations. The entire family was constantly home schooled on proper gravel road grader techniques as numerous poor examples were often pointed out on family trips into town.
In 1965 Marvin decided to get back into farming and leased the rambling Leo Megan farm that adjoined the Iowa River near the old railroad/river town of Secore, 5 miles south of Eldora. The couple continued to farm there until Marvin purchased the family farm from his parents in 1971 and moved the family back to Wellsburg. In 1973, Marvin and Jean, bought Rooks Implement on the southeast side of Eldora, eventually moving the Allis-Chalmers and New Holland dealership and service shop east of Eldora near the Iowa River bridge and State Highway 175. Heikens Sales and Service continued to serve the greater Hardin and Grundy County area until 1978. In 1992 the couple purchased a twenty-five-acre parcel between Hubbard and Iowa Falls that they developed into their residence where Marvin raised his Morgan horses and “Oreo” cows, as the grandchildren called them, and tended to his farm pond which he stocked with bass, walleye, crappie and bluegills so that the kids would have some place to fish. Marvin continued to do custom harvesting and baling for farmers in the area and hauled gravel for Grundy and Hardin County during the summer until health issues required him to retire.
Marvin passed away suddenly but quietly from heart complications on October 1, 2018 at his home north of Hubbard, Iowa.
He is survived by his wife Jean, sons Darold (Lori) Heikens, Yuba City, California and Dwight (Angie) Heikens, Wellsburg, daughter Dawn (Greg) Ringena, Steamboat Rock, brothers Don Heikens, Wellsburg and Jim (Linda) Heikens, Des Moines, sister Bev Hatcher, Ames; grandchildren Tara (Heikens) Simmelink, San Diego, Remington Ringena, Wellsburg, Austin Heikens, Portland, Oregon, Cassidy Ringena, Ames, Dylan Heikens, San Diego, Nate Huffman, Waterloo, Keon Huffman, Cedar Falls and great granddaughters Kyra, Logan and Taylor.
Marvin is preceded in death by his father Harry Heikens, mother Dena (Hoodjer) Heikens, brother Harlan Heikens, sister-in-law Norma (Johnson) Heikens, brother-in-law Terry (Bev) Hatcher and grandson Clint Heikens.
Memorials may be directed to the family.
--Boeke Funeral Homes (www.boekefuneralhomes.com)
Grundy Obituaries maintained by Tammy D. Mount.
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