Eleanor Tatum Hoover (2006)

HOOVER, TATUM, CARTER, KNIGHT, GUSTAFSON, VANDENBERG, KNIGHT-SIMONEAUX, EASTIN, CRESAP

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler, Volunteer (email)
Date: 12/20/2009 at 09:20:59

Des Moines Register – May 2006

Eleanor Tatum Hoover, 79, of Oskaloosa went to her heavenly home on Wednesday evening, May 17, 2006 surrounded by her loving family at Pella Comfort House. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m., Friday at Garland-Van Arkel-Langkamp Fumeral Chapel in Oskaloosa; with family visitation from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday evening. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday morning, May 20, at the College Avenue Friends Church in Oskaloosa with Pastor Mike Moyer officiating and Andrea Holveck of the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting assisting. She has donated her body to the Palmer Chiropractic College and burial will be at a later date in the Friends cemetery in Oskaloosa. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Oskaloosa Friends Church, Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting, the O.K. Bunch or to the Hospice Comfort House of Pella, IA and left at the church or funeral chapel.

Eleanor Tatum Hoover, the youngest daughter of Walter and Ethel Branson Tatum, was born August 12, 1926, at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Her family moved to Quakerdale Farm in New Providence where Eleanor graduated from New Providence High School in 1943. While attending William Penn College she met Herbert F. Hoover; they married March 23, 1946.

Three daughters were born from this union, Rebecca, Rachel and Rose. Herbert and Eleanor ran Penn Dairy for 4 years and then moved to the Hoover family farm, Active Acres Co-op. The Jersey dairy farm produced Grade A milk which was sold to Milky Way Dairy. Eleanor got up at 4:30 every morning to milk up to 60 cows and milked again at night for nearly 20 years. Herbert and Eleanor moved to Dodgeville, Wisconsin and raised organic vegetables, built a yurt for communal worship, and folk danced at Folklore Village. In 1974, they parted ways and Eleanor returned to Oskaloosa to care for her ailing father. Eleanor drove a school bus for the Oskaloosa public schools for 23 years.

Eleanor was manager of Inglenook Apartments for 27 years. Eleanor was so humbled to be selected as Good Neighbor of the Year and later Woman of the Year in 1997.

Eleanor participated in many community activities such as volunteering at the Ecumenical Cupboard and at Nelson Pioneer farm, was a five gallon blood donor, walked on Crop Walk for 17 years.

She belonged to the Missionary Martha Circle of the College Avenue Friends Church and was a member of the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting. She was very active in the OK Bunch at the First Assembly of God in Oskaloosa.

Survivors include her three daughters, Rebecca (Becky) and Jimmy Carter of Oskaloosa; Rachel Knight of Arlington, WA; and Rose and Jerry Gustafson of Enid, OK; eight grandchildren: B.J. Carter, Shari VanDenBerg, Megan Knight, Maleika Knight-Simoneaux, Natosha Knight, Jamara Knight, Julie Eastin, and Jay Gustafson; ten great grandchildren; two sisters-in-law: Virginia Tatum and Mary Ellen Tatum; a nephew and many nieces.

Eleanor was preceded in death by her parents, Walter and Ethel Tatum; a sister, Eloise Cresap of Winterset, IA; two brothers, Kenneth Tatum of Denver, CO and Lawrence Tatum of New Providence, IA.