Toland, Ruth B. (Giles) 1907-2004

TOLAND, OGBORN, GILES, SVEC

Posted By: volunteer (email)
Date: 6/25/2005 at 21:45:37

Ruth Batona Toland, 96, of Nelson Manor in Newton died of heart failure on Sunday, Jan. 4, at Nelson Manor.

Services will be held today at 2 p.m. at Pence-Reese Funeral Home in Newton with Mary Schnepf, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Newton, officiating. Burial will be at Newton Union Cemetery. Memorials may be made in lieu of flowers to the Courthouse Christmas Lighting Fund or to the Jasper County Animal Rescue League and may be left at the funeral home.

The daughter of Pleasant B. and Ada Loraine Ogborn Giles, she was born Oct. 15, 1907, in Waverly. She graduated from Waverly High School and earned a bachelor of science degree in geology from the University of Iowa. She attended St. Louis School of Embalming and was the fourth woman in Iowa to receive an embalmer's license. She worked as a funeral director and, with her husband, established the Toland Funeral Home in Newton in 1935, which is now Pence-Reese Funeral Home. She operated the funeral home for 28 years and also worked as a school teacher in Shell Rock.

On Nov. 24, 1932, she married Ralph V. Toland in Waverly. She lived in Des Moines, St. Louis and Waverly and moved to Newton in 1935. She was a member of First United Methodist Church, the C.W. Club, the Clio Club and was a lifetime member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

Survivors include a son, Joseph Toland of Houma, La.; a daughter, Patricia Svec of Newton; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; two brothers, John and Robert Giles; and a granddaughter, Lara Toland.

Newton (IA) Daily News, Wednesday, January 7, 2004