Bayles, Lois (Stearns) 1926-2003

BERKA, BAYLES, JOHNSON

Posted By: volunteer (email)
Date: 10/21/2005 at 21:48:38

Lois (Berka) Bayles, 77, of Newton died of cancer Saturday, May 17, at her home.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Newton with the Rev. Mary Schnepf, associate pastor, officiating. Burial will be at Newton Union Cemetery.

Friends may call today at the Pence Funeral Home, 105 S. 2nd Ave. W., in Newton where the family will be available from 6 to, 8 p.m. Memorials will be accepted in her name.

The daughter of Arthur Stearns and Lily Johnson, she was born Feb. 15, 1926, in Omaha, Neb. On April 17, 1972, she married Loren Bayles in Newton. She worked for Jupiter, was a pianist for the Fireside Supper Club in Newton and the Hawaiian Room in Des Moines, and was a songwriter and had music that was published with Acuff-Rose Opryland. She also was a playwright, "Hobo from Hoboken," and owner of About Time Publishing.

Survivors include her husband; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Keith W. Berka of Austin, Texas, and Frank W. and Belinda Jo Berka of Daingerfield, Texas; two daughters, Donna L. Terrebrood of Ozark, Mo., and Karen L. Berka Venerable of Clive; nine grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; two sisters, Virginia Johnson of Onawa and Diana L. Lykee of Omaha, Neb.; and her stepmother, Sylvia Johnson Stearns of Omaha, Neb.

She was preceded in death by her mother and father, first husband, Donald Berka, brothers, Arthur Stearns, Donald T. Stearns, Bill Stearns, Vernon H. Stearns, Lyle D. Stearns, and a sister, Lillian Kathryn Stearns.

The Newton Daily News, Monday, May 19, 2003