Harryman, Ethel Irene (Young) 1908-2004

HARRYMAN, YOUNG, OFFILL, RODGERS, YOUNKER, SENTMAN

Posted By: Debbie Nash (email)
Date: 12/17/2004 at 13:55:20

Ethel Irene Harryman
December 13, 2004

Ethel Irene Harryman, 96, of Douds died Friday, Dec. 10, 2004,. at Van Buren County Hospital in Keosauqua.

The funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Christ United Methodist Church in Douds. Burial will be in Leando Cemetery near Douds.

Visitation will be held from 2-8 p.m. Tuesday at Pedrick Funeral Home in Douds, with family present to receive friends from 3-4 p.m. and from 7-8 p.m. A P.E.O. memorial service will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to Christ United Methodist Church, Van Buren County Hospital or Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Mrs. Harryman was born Feb. 12, 1908, near Kellogg, the daughter of Bolin and Maude Offill Young. She married Harold E. Harryman June 30, 1936, in Prairie City.

She attended Pleasant View School in Jasper County and graduated from Newton High School in 1926. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1931 with a bachelor of arts degree in music and English literature. She also received special piano training from DePaul University in Chicago. While a student, she sewed and mended for the linen department of the hospital and typed thesis papers for graduate students. In 1931, she began teaching music in Iowa public schools in Fairbank, Blairstown, Delhi and Jordan.

She and her husband resided in Cedar Falls until moving to the Harryman family homestead near Douds in 1941. She taught in Douds school and gave private piano lessons in her home for many years. She was a substitute teacher after moving to Milton in 1952. She and her husband served Methodist churches in Milton and Lebanon, then churches in Cantril, Mount Sterling, Ames, Seymour, Promise City and Newton until retirement in 1974, when they returned to Douds.

She traveled extensively with her family and wintered in Palm Bay, Fla., for nearly 25 years.

Mrs. Harryman was a member of Christ United Methodist Church in Douds and a longtime member of United Methodist Women, for which she held offices at the district level. She organized the first combined church choir for Douds-Leando Methodist churches and directed the choir for many years. In Douds, she arranged for meals for bereaved families for several years.

She was a 51-year member of P.E.O. and member of Van Buren County Retired Teachers Association and Van Buren County Genealogical Society. She pursued the genealogical search for her husband's and her own family lines, authoring four books of family history which won Library of Congress acclaim for content and composition.

She enjoyed reading, crocheting and needlework, which she continued after her vision failed.

Survivors include her husband; two daughters, Marilyn Rodgers and husband Dean of Marengo and Shirley Younker and husband Donald of Green Valley, Ariz.; one son, Merlin Harryman and wife Marilyn of Douds; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; and one sister, Helen Young Sentman.

Courtesy of the Fairfield Daily Ledger Inc. 2004