Irma Madeline Morrow 1918-2003

MORROW, KORTLANG, SPRINGER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 5/24/2008 at 22:30:41

Sioux City Journal
4 March 2003

Irma Madeline Springer Morrow
ONAWA, Iowa -- Irma S. Morrow, 84, of Onawa passed away Friday, Feb. 28, 2003, in Omaha, Neb., following a lengthy illness.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. John Catholic Church in Onawa, with the Rev. Harry D. McAlpine officiating. Burial will be in Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Missouri Valley, Iowa, following lunch at the parish. Visitation will be 4 to 9 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 9 p.m., a rosary at 7:30 p.m. and a Scriptural wake service at 8 p.m., at Rush Family Chapel in Onawa.

Irma Madeline Springer was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 24, 1918, the second of three children, to Roland and Aurora (Kortlang) Springer. The family moved first to Omaha. Then when Irma was in the third grade, they moved to Miami, Okla., where she grew up and graduated from high school in 1935. Irma continued her education for another two years at Northeast Community Junior College and then moved to Omaha, where she studied bookkeeping and shorthand at Vansant's Business School. Those skills were put to good use when the Federal Land Bank in Omaha hired her in 1939.

It was here that Irma met a Creighton law student and her future husband, Patrick, whom she married in the chapel at St. Cecilia's Cathedral on Oct. 12, 1942. Theirs was the first marriage officiated by newly ordained priest, Father Daniel Sheehan, a college roommate of Pat's, who would later become archbishop of the Omaha Archdiocese.

During the four years that Pat was in the FBI, he and Irma began their family with a daughter in New Orleans, La., a son in Buffalo, N.Y., and another daughter and son in Onawa, where the family settled in 1946. Blessed with a good home and healthy family, Irma enjoyed her life as a career wife and a caring, wonderfully loving mother.

She was an active parishioner of St. John Catholic Church and a faithful member of the Rosary Society and past president of the Women's Club. Irma enjoyed many interests including bridge club, knitting, gardening and golf in earlier years.

Irma is survived by two daughters and sons-in-law, Pam and Dr. John Hoesing of Omaha, and Peggy and retired USN Cmdr. Larry Richardson of Palm Harbor, Fla.; two sons, Patrick and Philip, both of Omaha; a sister, Dorothy Eddy of Omaha; a brother, Paul Springer of Woodland, Texas; 13 grandchildren, Dr. Keri Philpot and her husband, Scott of Kearney, Neb., Kristen O'Brien and her husband, Michael of West Chester, Pa., J.J. Hoesing of Bellevue, Wash., Sean and his fiancee, Sandy Eggerling, Matt and his wife Stacey, Chanda, Britteny, Luke, Joe and Mark Morrow and their mother, Cheryl, all of Omaha, Shane Richardson of Los Angeles, Calif., and Jeffrey and Chad Richardson of Jacksonville, Fla.; seven great-grandchildren, Michael, Meghan and Conlan O'Brien, all of West Chester, Pa., Katie, Gracie and Parker Philpot, all of Kearney, and Owen Morrow of Omaha; and many loving nieces and nephews.

Irma was preceded in death by her parents; an infant son, Gregory; an infant daughter, Roseanne; and her husband, Pat, who passed away Dec. 11, 2000.

Memorials may be directed to St. John Catholic Church in Onawa.