Helen C. Quigley 1914 - 1990

QUIGLEY, MCNEILL, DUNDON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 8/4/2014 at 10:32:10

Onawa Democrat
11 October 1990

Helen C. Quigley, 76, of Iowa City, Iowa died Friday, September 28, 1990, in Mercy Hospital after a long illness.

Services were held at 9:30 a.m. Monday, October 1, 1990, in St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Graveside services were at 2:00 p.m. Monday at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines. A Memorial Fund was established.

Mrs. Quigley, the former Helen C. McNeill, was born May 14, 1914 on the family farm in Ashton Township near Onawa, the daughter of James and Cecelia Dundon McNeill. After graduation from the Onawa Public School in 1931, she attended St. Catherine's College in St. Paul, Minnesota and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1935 where she was a member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority. Following graduation she was employed as a welfare worker in Pottawattamie Co., Council Bluffs and later became Director of Welfare in Page County, Iowa at Clarinda.

She was married to Col. James F. Quigley on June 6, 1942 at Des Moines, following which they temporarily lived in Washington D.C. and New York City. After WWII, the family returned to Des Moines where they continued to live until 1976 when both retired and moved, to Bella Vista, Arkansas. Mr. Quigley died there on August 29, 1978.

While in Des Moines she was active in civic and charitable affairs and served as the Executive Director of the Polk County Mental Health Association from 1962 to 1976. In Bella Vista she founded and directed Hospice for Northern Arkansas.

In 1987 she moved to Iowa City, Iowa where she was a member of the St. Patrick's Catholic Church.

She is survived by two sons, James and wife Linda of Iowa City and Thomas of Portland, Oregon; three daughters, Patricia of San Diego, California, Suzanne (Mrs. Lynn) Grulke of Harlingen, Texas and Mary (Mrs. Gary) Quigley-Rick of Iowa City; a brother Raymond McNeill of Onawa; seven grandchildren, Timothy, Christina, Teresa, Mark, Anna, Sky and Ian; one great-grandchild Jeremy.

She was preceded in death by her parents, one brother, Harold J. and a sister Louise.