Merle Powell Downs

DOWNS, POWELL, COOPER, KEENEY, WILLCOX, SMITH, SIMMERMAN

Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 6/2/2006 at 17:38:15

Winterset Madisonian
October 18, 1983

Merle Bernice Downs, St. Charles

Services for Merle Bernice Downs, 74, St. Charles, who died Oct. 10 at Des Moines General Hospital, were held Thursday, Oct. 13 at St. Charles Parish Church with the Rev. Chet Waterman officiating. Burial was at the St. Charles Cemetery.

Born in Madison County Jan. 2, 1909, she was the daughter of Albert and Lou Cooper Powell. She attended Winterset schools and was married May 21, 1932 to Don Downs at Bethany, Mo. A retired teacher, Mrs. Downs spent five years in country schools, two years at St. Marys and 11 at Interstate 35 Schools. She was a member of the model chapter 174, Order of the Eastern Star, and the First Christian Church at St. Charles.

Survivors include her husband; a daughter, Shirley Keeney and husband Robert of Prole; a son David Downs and wife, Mary Ann of St. Charles; eight grandchildren; sisters, Jessie Willcox of Pueblo, Colo., Christina Simmerman of Peru and Edna Smith of Muskogee, Okla.; and brothers, Morris Powell of Winterset and Mark Powell of South Carolina.

She was preceded in death by her parents, a granddaughter and two brothers.