ABELS, Leola M. 1916-2016

ABELS, MILLER

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 2/8/2020 at 07:32:00

Leola M. Abels

Leola M. Abels, born April 12, 1916, passed from this life to her eternal home on May 18, 2016, having attained the age of 100. Funeral services will be held Thursday, June 9 at 4 p.m. at Colfax Center Presbyterian Church, rural Holland. A private family burial will precede the service. Memorial gifts may be directed to Colfax Presbyterian Church Women's Ministry (WIC) or a charity of your choice.

She was born in Pleasant Valley Township, Grundy County, to Emil and Ella Miller. She graduated from Wellsburg High School in 1935. After a brief teaching course at Iowa State Normal School in Cedar Falls, she began teaching in German Township and then Colfax Township schools. In 1941 she married Jacob A. Abels and moved to the Abels family farm where she lived all of her life until 2004.

While teaching in rural school and working on the farm with her husband, Leola continued her education at Ellsworth Community College and Drake University, earning a B.S. Degree in math education. When the rural schools closed in 1960, she began teaching junior high math in Grundy Center. She taught 32 years in Grundy County schools and retired in 1979. Teaching and mentoring young people was her passion. In addition to school and farm, Leola was active in leadership at Colfax Presbyterian Church where she taught ladies’ Bible studies, Vacation Bible School and mission outreach projects. She served on several pulpit committees and helped support Cono Christian School through the church women’s group.

After her retirement she traveled extensively and continued to manage the farm until age 88, when a series of mini-strokes made it necessary for her to move to an assisted living facility and eventually a nursing home in Papillion, NE, where her son J. A. Abels and family live.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Emil and Ella Miller; two brothers, Arthur Miller and Donald Miller; and two sisters, Muriel DeVries and Miriam Miller-Scholte.

She is survived by sons, J. A. Abels (Dianne) of Papillion, NE, and James A. Abels of Oak Harbor, WA. In addition she has four grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren: Stephen J. Abels (Joy), Caroline, Chelsea, Cameron and Christian; Douglas J. Abels (Karen), Jesse, Seth, Jacob and Emma; Jonathon B. Abels (Lisa), Amelie and Jonathon; Elizabeth Williams (James) Katherine and Wesley.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 2 June 2016, pg 8