Arnold Melby 1909-2009

MELBY EVENSON PRICE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 1/7/2010 at 22:50:36

Sioux City Journal
26 November 2009

SOLDIER, Iowa -- Arnold Melby, 99, of Onawa, Iowa, formerly of Soldier, passed away Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009, at Elmwood Care Centre in Onawa.

Services will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Soldier Lutheran Church, with the Rev. Meggan Manlove officiating. Burial will be in Soldier Lutheran Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, with a prayer service at 7 p.m., at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Rush Family Care Service in Onawa.

Arnold was born Dec. 22, 1909, in Moorhead, Iowa, the son of Adolph and Lena (Evenson) Melby. He was raised in the Moorhead area, where he attended country school.

He and Vesta Price were united in marriage on June 28, 1933. The couple made their home in Mapleton, Iowa, and he worked for the W.P.A. They later moved to Grant Center and Danbury, Iowa, where he was a farm laborer, before the couple started farming in Mapleton, in 1943. In 1948, they bought a farm in Dunlap, Iowa, where he retired in 1979. Vesta passed away Dec. 25, 2002.

He was a member of Soldier Lutheran Church and cherished being able to ring the bell on Sunday for many years. He loved music and played the violin at neighborhood house dances. The couple enjoyed traveling.

Survivors include a son and his wife, Duane and Myrna of Soldier; a daughter and her husband, Sharon and Bill Markey of Lake Oswego, Ore.; 13 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren; 10 great-great-grandchildren; and a sister, Edna Hall of Moorhead, Iowa.

In addition to his wife, Vesta, he was also preceded in death by a son and his wife, Virgil and Janet Ehlers; four brothers, Kenneth, Leonard, Willard and Dale; and four sisters, Mildred Andrews, Lorraine Price, Gilma Burson and Agnes Weber.