Bertha Cole Harms, 1905-2005

GILLPATRICK, COLE, HARMS

Posted By: michael (email)
Date: 9/2/2005 at 14:59:58

Bertha Cole Harms, 100, of Iowa City, died September 1, 2005 surrounded by family at Crestview Care Center in West Branch.

Funeral Mass will be celebrated Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Mary’s Church with Reverend Ken Kuntz officiating. Burial will be at St. Joseph Cemetery. Friends may call Tuesday, September 6 from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service, where the Catholic Daughters of the Americas and the National Catholic Society of Foresters will recite a rosary at 4PM and a Parish Vigil Service will be held at 7PM. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Catholic Community Foundation for Regina, St. Peter and Paul Historical Foundation or the America Diabetes Assn.

Bertha was born August 12, 1905 in Cedar Township, nine miles north of Iowa City to V. Frank and Margaret (Gillpatrick) Cole.

She attended Newport rural school through third grade. In 1915 she drove a horse and buggy three miles to Iowa City and attended St. Mary’s Catholic School from 4th grade until she graduated from St. Mary’s High School June 11, 1924. On the next day, June 12, 1924, she took the interurban to Cedar Falls and entered Iowa State Teacher’s College for a twelve week normal training class. On Labor Day 1924 she started to teach at Newport School #3. She taught in the rural schools for seven years. Bertha also attended summer school at Iowa State Teacher’s College, where she graduated in the fall of 1930 with a two year diploma for upper grades. She next taught grade school at Salix, Iowa for five years until 1935.

On May 1, 1935 she married Fred Charles Harms in Solon at St. Mary’s Church by Father Michaelec. She joined her husband on a farm north of Solon, where they lived for twenty-five years until Fred’s health failed. The family moved to East Market Street in Iowa City.

While living in Solon, Bertha was active as a 4-H leader and leader of the youth group of the Catholic Foresters. She belonged to the Solon Band Mother’s Group and was president of the Solon PTA. Bertha was a grade school teacher in the area for many years. She substitute taught while raising her children, and later taught in the Alburnett and Mid-Prairie school systems. During this time she earned her Bachelor’s of Arts in Elementary Education at the University of Iowa. In 1967, she earned her Masters of Arts degree in Reading and Supervision.

Bertha’s retirement years were spent volunteering as a CCD teacher for fifteen years in the Iowa City Vicariate, and twelve of those years she was a religion teacher for disabled children. She welcomed foreign students into her home and volunteered to tutor them in English. She also entertained them for holiday dinners. Bertha was a member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, St. Mary’s Altar and Rosary Society, Davenport Diocesan Council of Catholic Women of which was Past President,, Foreign Relations Council, Friends of Foreign Students, Jonco Jills of the Izaak Walton League, Alumni Club of the University of Iowa, the Past Regent’s Club, the Iowa City Federated Women’s Club, Church Women United, the Catholic Order of Foresters and a long time member of St. Mary’s Parish. Bertha was also a world traveler for twenty years, visiting sixty-one countries, many of them more than once.

Bertha is survived by two sons, Charles F. and Marie Harms of Mount Vernon, Iowa and Leo W. and Mary Lou Harms of Sun City, Arizona. She is also survived by three daughters, Anne Roberts of Phoenix, Arizona, Rose Ramsey of Cincinnati, Ohio and Mary Jane and Richard Wonick of Iowa City. She has fifteen grandchildren, Barbara Tepper and her husband Craig, Brenda Lynch and her husband Michael, Lt. Cmdr. David Roberts and his wife Lisa, Mark Roberts and his wife Kelly, Bradley Harms and his wife Laura, Brian Harms, Julie Harms, Suzanne Bannaszar and her husband Matthew, Evangeline Ramsey, Hansel Ramsey, Ellen Kacena and her husband Thomas, Jermaine Ramsey, Mary Katherine Ramsey, Dennis Wonick and his wife Dawn, sixteen great-grandchildren, and three step-grandchildren. She is also survived by two sisters, Marcella Freund and Evelena Kron, one brother, Vernon Cole and many nieces and nephews.

Bertha was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, a son-in-law Dave Roberts, brother and sister-in-law Leslie and Ethel Cole, sister-in-law Pearl Cole, two sisters and brother-in-laws, Margaret and Gabriel Dvorsky and Kenneth and Matilda Baker.

On-line condolences may be directed to www.lensingfuneral.com