Hesper Elsie (Aronson) Mapes (1978)

MAPES, ARONSON, CARTER, LANK

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 12/13/2008 at 13:45:49

Earlham Echo – December 21, 1978

Obituary

Hesper Elsie, daughter of Lars Eric and Emma J. Allen Aronson, was born November 21, 1893 on a farm in Adair County, Iowa, where her parents were homesteaded on the prairie. She passed away December 12, 1978, at the Madison County hospital in Winterset. She was the youngest of four children.

Rev. Charles Curl officiated at the funeral service on Friday, December 15, at the Stuart Mt. Vernon United Methodist church. Organ music was provided by Robert Lawson and caring for the floral tribute was Mrs. Bill Eversull. Serving as casket bearers were Lee Carter, Wayne Charter, Charles Clark, Jay Uebler, Harold Carns and Jack Raper. Interment was in Dexter cemetery. Professional arrangements were by Link Funeral Home, Stuart.

Hesper attended country school and Earlham Academy. In 1905, she moved with her family to Inyo County, California in the Owens River Valley, where they lived one year. Hesper and her sister, Anna, were members of a ladies’ quartet for Chatauqua Company.

On July 15, 1912, she was united in marriage to Howard Isaac Mapes and three children were born to this union. During their nearly 45 years of marriage, they farmed in Adair County, moving to Earlham in the spring of 1946 to care for Hesper’s father until his death in 1949.

Due to failing health, Hesper moved to a mobile home on the Warren Carter farm in 1969. She was a home-loving person and always willing to lend a helping hand to her many friends and loved ones. She had a great love for the outdoors and gardening. Her pastime these last years was her flowers and making quilts.

As a child, she was a member of the Friends Church, joining the Mount Vernon Methodist Church in the early 1930’s. She was a Sunday school teacher for many years.

Besides her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters, a brother and a grandson.

Surviving are her three children: Arthur Mapes and his wife, Esther, of Dexter; Marian and her husband, Warren Carter, of Dexter; and Ramona and her husband, Wilfred Lank, of Rosemead, California; five grandchildren, two great-granddaughters, nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.