Middlekoop, John Jr. 1929-2004

MIDDLEKOOP, BURBANK, ANDERSON, OLIVER, BAKER

Posted By: Debbie Nash (email)
Date: 4/16/2004 at 13:56:34

John Middlekoop Jr.
April 15, 2004

John Middlekoop Jr., 74, of 1878 Packwood Road, Batavia died at 6:56 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, 2004, at Jefferson County Hospital.

The funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Raymond Funeral Home, with Keevin Koch officiating. Burial will be in Packwood Cemetery in Packwood.

The family will receive friends from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the funeral home.

Memorials may be made to Packwood First Responders, American Cancer Society or a charity of the donors choice.

Mr. Middlekoop was born July 6, 1929, in Mahaska County near Oskaloosa, the son of John Tunis and Anna Burbank Middlekoop. He married Dorothy Anderson April 25, 1953, at Salina Presbyterian Church.

He grew up in the rural Oskaloosa area and attended Prine school, northwest of Oskaloosa. The family moved to the Packwood community in 1939 when he was 9 years old. He attended Packwood school and graduated from Packwood High School in 1946.

Mr. Middlekoop served in the United States Army during the Korean War from 1951-1953 in an anti-aircraft artillery unit.

A farmer, he won both categories in the Masters Corn Growers contest at the Iowa State Fair in 1962. He helped his father judge corn at the Iowa State Fair.

He was a member of the Peoples Church in Batavia. He also was a member of the Farm Bureau. He was Mayo Clinic's longest surviving Hodgkin's disease patient.

Survivors include his wife; one son, Tom Middlekoop of Batavia; two daughters, Trudy Oliver and husband Ed of Batavia and Sue Baker and husband Brian of Keosauqua; two granddaughters; and one brother, Jack Middlekoop of Packwood.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Courtesy of the Fairfield Daily Ledger Inc. 2004