Bayles, Elinor Mae

BAYLES, BARR, VAN EVERA, KORDAS, VAVRA

Posted By: carol (email)
Date: 8/22/2006 at 12:11:06

MAQUOKETA — Elinor Mae Bayles, 90, of Maquoketa, died Friday at the Maquoketa Care Center.

Graveside services and burial will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Summit Cemetery, rural Davenport.

She was born Aug. 17, 1916, in Scott County to Roger and Zella Barr Van Evera. She married Russell A. Bayles on Aug. 19, 1939, in Davenport. He died in 1989.

She was educated in country schools. She graduated from Davenport Central High School and then took teacher’s training in Cedar Falls, earning a teaching certificate.

She taught at country schools in Scott County for five years prior to her marriage. In the early 1940s, she and her husband moved to Lansing, Mich. They then came back to Iowa where they farmed north of Davenport for many years and she worked at the library in Eldridge. She later worked with the Quad-City Times for five years. In the early 1970s, she and her husband moved to Maquoketa where she sold real estate with the Nissen-Caven Agency for two years.

She was an active member of First Baptist Church, Maquoketa, where she served as the church organist and pianist from the late 1970s until 2005. She was a founding member of the Make-Today-Count Club and Golden Agers, both in Maquoketa. She volunteered at the Jackson County Public Hospital and delivered Meals-On-Wheels for many years. She also volunteered her time and regularly visited the Maquoketa Care Center and Crestridge Nursing Home in Maquoketa entertaining residents through music and games.

Survivors include her children, James (Carol) Bayles of Bettendorf and Joyce (Don) Kordas of Elk Grove Village, Ill.; one daughter-in-law, Dottie Bayles of Maquoketa; one sister, Eunice Vavra of Austin, Texas; five grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the First Baptist Church, Maquoketa.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, one son and three brothers.

Source: Clinton Herald, Clinton, Iowa
Death date: Aug. 18, 2006