Fern Elizabeth (Lyon) Orr (2/17/1926 - 7/31/2010)
PETERSEN, LYON, ORR, STRUTHERS, KUNDEL
Posted By: Gerhardt Leffler (email)
Date: 8/2/2010 at 09:43:16
Fern Elizabeth (Lyon) Orr was born on December 17, 1926 on a farm near Ayrshire, Iowa to Alfred and Annelena (Petersen) Lyon, the second of two girls. She was a 1944 graduate of Ayrshire High School where she was said to be a pretty good guard (back when Iowa girls played 6 on6). After high school, she attended business school in Mankato, MN and later worked as a bookkeeper for a wholesale food distributor in Laurens, IA. While in Laurens, she met Bill Orr and they were married on July 11, 1948. They had just shy of 58 years of marriage prior to Bill’s death in 2006. Fern and Bill had one son, Chuck, born in 1950. Bill spent his entire working career managing grain elevators for Quaker Oats and later Cargill and his career took them to Williams, IA., Fonda, IA., Stanhope, IA., Fullerton, NE., and Perry, IA. In 2004 they moved to Highland Ridge in Williamsburg. Fern’s life revolved around her family, her friends and the church. She easily could have been the model from which June Cleaver or Donna Stone was drawn. She was a doting wife and mother who always put the needs of her husband and son above her own. She was a tireless worker on many church committees in the communities in which she lived. Fern was a good cook and a better baker. Her pies and cookies will be missed most by her family but also by the many people that she shared her treats with at Christmas time and other special occasions. She loved the Hawkeyes (especially basketball) but also rooted for the Cyclones and Panthers. Fern is survived by her son Chuck and his wife Sally (Erickson) Orr of Coralville; a granddaughter: Jennifer (Orr) Struthers and her husband Robert of Coralville; two great grandchildren: Maddie and Jack Struthers and a sister Louis Kundel of Florissant, MO. Fern was preceded in death by her parents and husband. Fern died Saturday; July 31, 2010 at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City from complications stemming from cancer at the age of 83 years. Celebration of Life Service will be 11:00 am Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at the Powell Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Williamsburg. Pastor James Parks will officiate. Burial will be in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Williamsburg. Visitation will be from 10:00 until service time on Wednesday. Memorials are for the St. Paul United Methodist Church in Williamsburg or the University of Iowa Foundation for the benefit of the Roland W. Holden Family Program of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics. Messages and tributes may be left at www.powellfuneralhomes.com under obituaries.
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