Thelma Yarolem (1965-2021)

YAROLEM, KOONTZ

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 1/11/2022 at 06:39:46

Thelma M. Yarolem, 56, of Wyoming, Iowa, passed away on Thursday, January 6, 2022, at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, Iowa.

A celebration of Thelma’s life will be held at 10:30 A.M., Thursday, January 13, 2022, at Carson Celebration of Life Center in Maquoketa. Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 P.M., Wednesday, January 12, 2022, at Carson Celebration of Life Center in Maquoketa. Burial will be at the Sutton Cemetery, rural Maquoketa, Iowa.

It will be required to utilize masks during the visitation and services.

Thelma Mae Koontz was born on August 4, 1965 in Maquoketa, Iowa, to Jerald Walker and Donna Jean (Bodkin) Koontz Sr. She grew up in the Jackson and Jones County areas. She married Tim Yarolem on May 1, 1993 in Monmouth, Iowa.

Thelma had first worked at Pacific Coast Feather Company in Maquoketa, and then at Jack N’ Jill grocery store in LaHarpe, Illinois in the deli department. She then worked at the Jackson County Public Hospital in Maquoketa in the Housekeeping Department and later for J & L Pipeline as a foreman. Most recently she had the best job as a housewife, mother and a grandmother.

Thelma enjoyed Halloween and enjoyed working at the Monmouth Haunted House for many years. She also enjoyed the outdoors and loved quilting and doing crafts of all kinds often giving to others. In her passing she continued her selflessness and helping others by giving the gift of organ tissue donation.

Those left to honor her memory include her husband, Tim Yarolem of Wyoming, IA; children, Barbara (Dee Jay) Thomsen of Oxford Junction, IA, Jonathan Fields of Wyoming, IA, Ashley (Jeremy) Kaska of Brighton, IA, Tristan (Iris) Yarolem of Germany, and Courtney Yarolem of Germany; 12 grandchildren; and siblings, Sylvia (Donald) DeMoss of Baldwin, IA, Jerald Koontz Jr. of Maquoketa, IA, Timmy Koontz of Maquoketa, IA, Marcie (Thomas) Skeffington of DeWitt, IA, Kimberly Lembo of Maquoketa, IA, Christine (Dale) Ehlinger of Brighton, IA, Betty (Randy) Hoist of Brighton, IA, Troy (Carla) Koontz of Lost Nation, IA, Jennifer Thomas of Maquoketa, IA, and Stacie Bodenhofer of Maquoketa, IA. She was preceded in death by her father Jerald Walker Koontz Sr. and mother Donna Koontz on November 27, 2021, a brother Dennis Koontz and a sister Deborah Koontz.

In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, a Thelma M. Yarolem memorial fund has been established.