Jennie O'Garro Thrift

THRIFT, OGARRO, DEMAR, JONES, DALEY

Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 3/3/2006 at 16:49:05

Winterset Madisonian
December 6, 1972

Jennie Thrift Died Nov. 30

Mrs. Jennie Thrift of Winterset, a former teacher, homemaker and artist, died Thursday, November 30 at Memorial Hospital here. She was 82 years of age.

Mrs. Thrift had attained recognition as an artist in recent years. She was one of the organizers of the Winterset Art Center, serving continuously on the board of directors from the founding until her death. She had paintings accepted for the Iowa State Fair, the Iowa Annual at the Des Moines Art Center and the Iowa Amateur Artists exhibits.

She was a native of Des Moines where she was born January 28, 1890, a daughter of Edward and Margaret DeMar O'Garro. She graduated from old West High School in Des Moines and from Simpson College in Indianola with the class of 1912. She received a degree from Drake Teachers College in 1921.

She taught in the rural schools of Warren and Madison Counties and at Greenwood and Windsor schools in Des Moines until her marriage in 1929 to Chester B. Thrift. They settled on a farm in Lincoln Township, where she lived until the death of her husband in 1955, after which she moved to Winterset.

She was a member of Grace Methodist Church in Des Moines in her early life, transferring to the First United Methodist Church of Winterset at the time of her marriage. She was a member of Clover and Antique clubs, the Winterset Art Center, the Amateur Iowa Artists, and a charter member of the Associated Artists of Central Iowa.

Nearest surviving relatives are three cousins, Mrs. Mildred Jones of Columbus City, Vivian DeMar of Ft. Lauderdale Florida and Mrs. Grace Daley of Grand Junction, Colorado.

Funeral services were held Monday from the Collins Funeral Home in Winterset, conducted by the Rev. Newton M. Coughenour, pastor of the First United Methodist Church here. Burial was made in the Winterset Cemetery.