CROOKS, Henry Ernest 1914-2000

CROOKS, RIES, PAGEL

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 8/24/2011 at 22:53:03

Henry Ernest Crooks

DOWS, IOWA -- Henry Ernest Crooks, 85, of Dows, died on Monday, January 17, 2000, at the USA Healthcare in Mason City. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Kensett, with the Rev. Selmer G. Hernes officiating. Burial will be at the Kensett Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. today at the Schroeder & Sites Funeral Home, Highway 65 South in Northwood.

Henry was born to Perry and Alma (Ries) Crooks on October 4, 1914, at Dougherty, Iowa, the second of four children. His father was a farmhand and the family moved nearly every spring, living various places in Mitchell and Cerro Gordo counties.

Henry attended one-room schools through the eighth grade. He left the parental home at the age of 14 and began working as a farmhand. He continued to help support his parents until he married at the age of 23. Alfrieda Pagel became his bride on May 11, 1938. They were married in the Immanuel Lutheran pastor's parsonage at St. Ansgar. Henry loved horses and even after automobiles and tractors replaced horses, Henry still managed to have a horse or pony around.

The family lived at Otranto, Mitchell and Carpenter, where they lived for seven years in the place they referred to as "The Woods." They moved to Kensett in 1955, where they lived for 10 years. The family moved to the Nevada area where he was employed as a custodian, first at the Nevada Community Schools and later at Iowa State University. Henry loved polka music, practical jokes and will be remembered for his sense of humor. He was a loving father who did all he could to provide for his family.

He was preceded in death by his parents; siblings Wilbur Crooks, Mary Beyer and Otto Crooks; granddaughter, Lisa DiMarco; and son-in-law, James Loftaas. Henry is survived by his wife, Alfrieda, of Dows; sons, Adrian, of Story City and Randolph and his wife, Kathy, of Ames; daughters, Carolyn Loftaas of Kensett, Glenita Brown and her husband, Stanley, of Rock Falls, Marjorie Tuthill and her husband, Richard, of Kensett, Cynthia Mallette of Boone, Mary Casterton and her husband, Gene, of Mason City, Ramona Parkin and her husband, Gary, of Norwalk, Rosalie Enfield and her husband, Calvin, of Collins; 22 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

Schroeder & Sites Funeral Home.

[Transcribed by Deanna Blaha 2002]