Ruby E McFarland 1914-2002

MCFARLAND, LUNDBERG, WIKSELL

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 5/28/2008 at 15:45:03

Sioux City Journal
25 July 2002

WHITING, Iowa -- Ruby E. McFarland, 87, of Whiting died Tuesday, July 23, 2002, at a Sioux City hospital.

Services will be 10 a.m. Friday at First Congregational Church in Whiting, with the Rev. Jeff Cooper of First Baptist Church, Canby, Minn., and the Rev. Reva B. Karstens, pastor of Congregational Church, officiating. Burial will be in Whiting Cemetery. Visitation will begin at 7 p.m. today, with a prayer service at 8 p.m., at Rush Family Care Service in Onawa, Iowa.

Ruby was born Sept. 23, 1914, in Kerkhoven, Minn., the daughter of the Rev. Nels and Alice (Lundberg) Wiksell. She graduated from Sloan (Iowa) High School in 1932 and then attended Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She taught rural school at Lake Township, Monona County, Iowa, for four years.

She was married to Harold "Mickey" McFarland on May 25, 1935, in Rockport, Mo. Mickey passed away Sept. 22, 1986, in Onawa. For the last two years, she resided at Northern Hills Assisted Living in Sioux City.

She was a member of First Congregational Church in Whiting for 65 years, where she taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. She was also superintendent of Sunday School, sang in the choir, assisted in the direction of Christmas plays and pageants, and was a deaconess and president of Women's Fellowship. She was membership chairman of the Monona County Republican Party and was a volunteer at Pleasant View Nursing Home in Whiting. She compiled a genealogy book of the Wiksell family, which was published in 1986.

Survivors include a daughter and her husband, Karen and Clayton Cooper of Whiting; a son, Lt. Col. Milton R. McFarland, USAF, Ret. of San Antonio, Texas; three grandchildren, C. Michele Tatsumi of Whiting, the Rev. Jeff Cooper and his wife, Cindy, of Canby, Minn., and Christopher S. Cooper and his wife, Sheila, of Whiting; three great-grandchildren, Christopher Tatsumi, T.J. Cooper and Nathan Cooper; three sisters-in-law, Elizabeth, Helen and Berniece Wiksell; and several nieces and nephews.

She was also preceded in death by her parents; five brothers, Dr. Wesley, Dr. Milton, David, Quentin and the Rev. Stanley Wiksell; and two sisters, Florence Thompson and Gladys Nelson.