Olson, Ivy A. (1907-2000)

OLSON, TODNEM, DOOLITTLE, GROSS, BORTON, KNUTSON, COON, BROWN

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 1/27/2023 at 10:41:41

Daily Freeman Journal
Webster City, Iowa
Monday, October 23, 2000

Ivy A. Olson, 93, Ellsworth, died Friday, October 20, 2000 at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames. Funeral services were held Monday at 3 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Ellsworth with Rev. Mike Herschberger to officiate. Burial was at Rose Grove Cemetery in Rose Grove Township north of Ellsworth. Becker Funeral Home at Jewell was in charge of arrangements.

Ivy A. Olson, daughter of Ross and Martha Todnem Olson, was born July 2, 1907 on a farm south of Blairsburg. She grew up in the Williams area, attending school there, and graduating from Williams High School in 1923. She received her teaching certification from Iowa State Teachers College and taught in rural schools near Williams. She then taught at Calumet and Pierson, Iowa where she served as principal for the junior and senior high schools. She continued her education at the University of Iowa, receiving her Masters degree in 1945. She also taught at Riceville, George and Roosevelt High School in Des Moines during her 19 year teaching career. She then began working full time in churches directing religious education. She attended the New York Theological Seminary to train in religious education and received her Master's degree in Religious Education in 1952. She worked in South Carolina and moved to Eau Claire, Wis., in 1955 where she was Parish Education Director at Grace Lutheran Church until her retirement in 1973. She also wrote a booklet used in teacher training classes for the Evangelical Lutheran Church. She learned of two orphaned girls from Germany through the Lutheran Refugee Service and brought them to live with her in 1958. After retirement, she moved to Ellsworth. She was an active volunteer in the South Hamilton Community School as well as at Bethany Manor in Story City and East Lane Manor in Jewell. She delivered Meals on Wheels in Ellsworth and helped with many other community projects over the years.

Survivors are her sister, Martha Doolittle of San Rafael, Calif., her "adopted" daughters, Karen Gross of Vero Beach, Fla., and her four children and Hannelore Borton of San Rafael, Calif., and her two sons; nieces and nephews and other family members.

She was preceded in death by her parents, a brother in infancy, three brothers, Raym Carl and Elmer Olson; four sisters, Oleda Knutson, Stella Coon, Helen Brown and Anna Olson.