Gage, May (Rothrock) 1900-1994

GAGE, ROTHROCK, NESBIT

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 4/29/2005 at 06:57:32

Newton Daily News March 21, 1994
May Gage
Gage, May (Rothrock)

Funeral services for May Eva Rothrock Gage, 93, who was active in church and community affairs for many years will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 19, [1994] at the Reese Chapel.

The Rev. Jerry Brown, pastor of the Newton First United Methodist Church, will conduct services. Burial will be in Newton Union Cemetery.

Friends may call after noon today at the funeral home.

Memorials to the Jasper County Unit of the American Cancer Society will be accepted.

Mrs. Gage died of Alzheimer's Disease Thursday [March 17, 1994] at Heritage Manor.

Survivors are special friends, Mark and Phyllis Emmack.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, Russell, in 1985, and a sister, Sadie.

Mrs. Gage was a teacher in Jasper County schools for more than a quarter of a century.

She was a music supervisor at Mingo for two years, was an English teacher at Monroe for two years and taught English in Newton schools for 10 years. She also was a parttime and substitute English teacher for several years.

She organized the Newton Adult Education program and served as its director from 1950 through 1967. She was president of the Iowa Adult Education Association during 1961-62.

Mrs. Gage, a member of the First Presbyterian Church, was active in church, American Cancer Society and Camp Fire Girls and was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Newton Community Theatre, YWCA, and a number of education organizations.

She was head of the Jasper County Cancer Association and was a delegate to the American Cancer Society's national convention in New York City in 1954. She received the society's highest award, the Bronze Medal, in 1968.

She also served as president and vice president of the Iowa American vice president of the Iowa American Cancer Society in 1967 and 1968.

Mrs. Gage received the highest national Camp Fire honor, the Wakon of Service, in 1932.

She was organist at both The Newton First Christian Church and First Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Gage was president of the Jasper County Inter-Church Council during the early 1950s.

She was involved with the Jasper County Tuberculosis Health Association and its Christmas Seal drives.

During the 1940s she traveled throughout most of Iowa as a representative of the Children's Commission of the Iowa Inter-Church Council.

The daughter Willis John and Cherry Georgiana Nesbit Rothrock, she was born Oct. 17, 1900 on a farm near Blairsburg.

After the death of her mother, when she was three, she went to live with her grandmother and two aunts. She resided briefly in a sod house on the South Dakota prairie but returned to Iowa, attending grad school and Lincoln High School in Webster City.

She received her bachelor's degree from Des Moines university in 1923 and did graduate work at Columbia University in New York City and Drake University in Des Moines.

She was married to Russell Gage June 6, 1937 in Newton.

Mrs. Gage had been a resident of Newton since 1927 and of Heritage Manor for the past ten years.

Originally submitted on Sat Jun 29 15:13:11 2002 by Volunteer Transcriber