Hazel Hibbs (1912)

HIBBS, MEYERS, STEWART

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 8/15/2007 at 21:41:30

Earlham Library Obituary Collection
Earlham, Iowa

Miss Hazel Hibbs, one of Earlham’[s fairest daughters, is gone, and a community is plunged into mourning. Gone is the face well loved, the gentle smile, the soullis greeting of this wonderful character who lived with us for so short a space. We see the walks she trod, the church she loved so well, the sphere of her brief life in unchanged, but of earth she is no longer. Eyes closed in the last sleep, mute lips, the lilly like beauty of a lifeless countenance—these we see through tear-dimmed eyes that cannot penetrate the veil which death has drawn. Alone remains a memory, pervasive and fragrant like the perfume of a beautiful flower-the memory of a nature cheerful and cheering, unselfish and sacrificing, a pure soul that recognized only things supereal. The influence of such a life is inestimable. Hazel had friends everywhere, and never an enemy. As Rev. Demaree said, her life was the greatest sermon that was ever uttered from an Earlham pulpit. A spiritual conviction such as marked her entire life could not fail to engender a kindred conviction in every heart.

To mention the religious life of Miss Hibbs would be to reiterate the superb tribute of Rev. Demaree in which occurred the remark that not one young person in ten thousand could compare with her. A “happy Christian” he termed her; for to the service of the Father she gave a devotion comparable only to the enthusiasm of her fellow young people over a favorite pastime. She was a faithful attendant at all services of the church and never permitted other interests to supersede her loyalty, to her Christian duties. Perhaps “duties” is not a proper word, for “duty” suggests an onerous task and surely Hazel never regarded God’s service as a hardship.

Hazel was the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. B. S. Hibbs, and has made her home here for the eleven years since she moved with her parents from their farm two miles north of Earlham. In 1908 she graduated from the Academy, and in 1909 completed a course in the Highland Park Conservatory of Music.

On Easter Sunday, March 29, 1907 Hazel united with the Presbyterian church. In May 1912 she went to Delta, Colo. with her parents in the hope of improving her health, which had been impaired by a too-earnest attention to the many responsibilities of her active life. The insidious disease was not to be thus shaken off, although its advances were ever carefully concealed. On the evening of Thursday, December 11 she retired in buovant spirits after a day spent out-of-doors; shortly after midnight the tired body relaxed its vigilance and her soul—the real Hazel behind those gladsome eyes of hers-was wafted into the celestial Kingdom.

The shadows of parting cluster thickly about those to whom this lovely character was near and dear. But\there is the promise of the morn, of smiling angel faces, and a vision of she who is “loved long since and lost a while.”

The funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at the Friends Church, following a short prayer service at the home of Mrs. Lillian Mendenhall. Rev. V. B. Demaree gave a sermon full of cheer and comfort to the bereaved friends and relatives. The Eastern Star lodge, of which Hazel was a member, also the Rose club in which she was prominent, were present in a body to do homage to her memory.

Hazel’s sister Mrs. Chas. Meyers, husband and family of Patterson and her brother-in-law Mr. Clyde Stewart of Delta, were among those present from away from Earlham. Also were present Mr. Smith Pearson, of Mitchellville, Col. And Mrs. Wilson of Burr Oak, Mrs. Wilda Hibbs and Miss Addie of Cedar Falls, Miss Ila Pease of Des Moines, Mrs. Marie Monroe of Colfax, Leland Mendenhall of Des Moines and Cloyde Edwards of Adair.

(Burial was in the Earlham cemetery)

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