Zella Marian (Graves) Edwards (2011)
EDWARDS, GRAVES, EVANS, LEE, DAVIS, HOGGARTT
Posted By: Mary Welty Hart (email)
Date: 3/18/2011 at 09:34:00
Winterset Madisonian, Winterset, Iowa
March 16, 2011ZELLA GRAVES EDWARDS, Winterset
Zella Marian Graves Edwards was born in Lincoln Township, Madison County, Iowa on April 2, 1911, the daughter of Marion R. and Irma G. (Evans) Graves. She passed away peacefully at West Bridge Care and Rehabilitation in Winterset on March 14, 2011.
Zella grew up on the family farm and attended Ord Church. She graduated from Winterset High School with the class of 1928, and attended Cornell College. She taught for several years at Grant rural school, then completed her college education at Iowa State College in Ames, graduating in 1938 with a degree in home economics education. She was a high school teacher at Garwin and Low Moor, Iowa.
On Sept. 8, 1940, Zella married Irvin Edwards, a former high school classmate. Irvin and Zella lived in Urbana, Ill., while Irvin finished his PhD degree at the University of Illinois. Later they lived in College Station, Texas, and in Logan, Utah, where Irvin was a faculty member at Texas A&M University and Utah State University. In 1945 they returned to the Edwards family farm six miles southeast of Winterset, where they lived until 2001. Zella was a supportive farm wife for many years, and took an active role in the community, serving as county chair of the Women’s Farm Bureau. She was a member of Zion Federated Church and later First United Methodist Church of Winterset. From 1963 until 1973 she was the librarian at Winterset Community High School. Following their retirement, Irvin and Zella enjoyed spending their winters in McAllen, Texas.
After Irvin’s death in 2001, Zella moved to Winterset, living in the Graves home at 503 West Jefferson until she was 96 years of age. During the last three years of her life she lived at West Bridge Care and Rehabilitation.
Zella was preceded in death by her husband Irvin Edwards, parents Marion and Irma Graves, brothers Harold (Betty) Graves and Robert (Lucile) Graves, and sisters Aileen (Myron) Lee and Helen Graves. She is survived by two sons, Fred Edwards of Omaha, Neb., and William (Jane) Edwards of Boone, Iowa; grandchildren Tim Edwards of Tekamah, Neb., David (Christy) Edwards of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Sarah (Wesley) Davis of Wooster, Ohio; and great-grandchildren Neil and Phoebe Hoggatt of Culver City, Calif., and Eleanor Davis of Wooster, Ohio.
Zella will be laid to rest in the Winterset Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at the First Methodist Church in Winterset at 10:30 a.m. on April 2. Visitation will be held 5-7 p.m. on April 1 at First Methodist Church. Memorial gifts may be made to the Winterset Education Foundation or to First United Methodist Church of Winterset.
Gravestone Photo
Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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