HEIKES, Rosalie 1919-2008

HEIKES, NICHOLSON, AUSTIN

Posted By: Roger Stubbe (email)
Date: 8/8/2008 at 21:17:30

(Jurrens Funeral Home Obituary)

Rosalie Heikes, age 88 of Rock Rapids, Lyon county, Iowa died Sunday, July 27, 2008 at the Rock Rapids Health Centre.

Memorial services were held Wednesday, July 30th at the United Methodist Church in Rock Rapids.

Burial followed at the Grand Prairie Cemetery near Ellsworth, Nobles county, Minnesota.

Rosalie was born December 21, 1919 at her family home in Lynd, Minnesota to Roy and Vinnie (Austin) Nicholson. She graduated from Lynd High school in 1938 and was a 1941 graduate from the School of Agriculture at the University of Minnesota, where she met her future husband. Rosalie was married to George P. Heikes on March 22, 1947. George passed away on March 14, 2005 just 8 days short of their 60th wedding anniversary.

The couple farmed northeast of Ellsworth their entire lives before retirement. In 1997, they hosted a celebration to mark a century of family farming. In 1978, they moved into Ellsworth. They moved into Premier Estates in Rock Rapids in 2003 and the Rock Rapids Health Centre in 2005.

Rosalie was very active in Ellsworth and surrounding communities serving the school PTA, Congregational Church Sunday School as teacher and superintendent, American Legion Auxiliary, Nobles County Welfare Board member, Red Cross volunteer, started a NAMI chapter in Nobles Co., member of the DAR, and Society of Mayflower Descendents. She was a member of the United Methodist Church, Rock Rapids. During World War II, she worked as a nurse’s aid at Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children. She worked for 10 years at Arnold Memorial Nursing Home in Adrian as a nurse’s aide and later volunteered as a Gray Lady. She enjoyed bird watching, embroidering, gardening, reading, ceramics, and was a wonderful cook. She was a faithful letter writer keeping in touch with many people she had met throughout her life.

Rosalie is survived by two sons, Lambert (Norma) Heikes, Lusby, Maryland; Carleton (Lisa) Heikes, Ellsworth; three daughters, Jennifer Collins, Spicer; Cynette (Jerry) Wipf, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Janet Heikes (Steven Sullivan), Hoffman Estates, IL; one sister, Florence Lund Williams, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, eleven grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her husband, George P. Heikes and her grandson, David Collins.

Lyon Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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