Luella Henrietta Sprague Reese 1917 - 2005

SPRAGUE, REESE, NEUMANN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-volunteer (email)
Date: 7/8/2017 at 01:00:47

Sioux City Journal
24 March 2005

TURIN, Iowa -- Luella Reese of rural Turin died peacefully Tuesday, March 22, 2005, at Pleasant View Care Center in Whiting, Iowa.

Services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at United Methodist Church in Turin, with the Rev. Chuck Layton officiating. Burial will be in Belvidere Cemetery. Visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Rush Family Care Service in Onawa, Iowa.

She was born Luella Henrietta Sprague on a farm near Miranda, S.D., on Jan. 5, 1917, the youngest of seven children. Her father, Henry Sprague, died just before her birth and her mother, Wilhelmina (Neumann) Sprague, died when she was three. Soon adopted by John and Hattie Rouse, a local family in Faulkton, she lost this mother at the age of five. John Rouse subsequently married Mabel Michaels and moved his family back to his home in Marengo, Iowa, where she was in the fifth grade. Despite the separation brought on by their parent's deaths, she and her siblings remained close throughout their lives.

She graduated as valedictorian of her Marengo High School class, then worked for her father until she was old enough to teach at Honey Creek School 4, a one-room school in Iowa County. After a short time there, she enrolled in Iowa State Teacher's College (now UNI) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and married Norman Zahrt, with whom she had attended high school. David Zahrt and Christy (Zahrt) Tews, were born in Iowa City, Iowa, to this union, where their father graduated from medical school at the University of Iowa. She was widowed during the war and in 1946, married Donald Reese of Turin, who had been a fellow student of Mr. Zahrt at the University of Iowa.

Luella and Donald, with David and Christy, joined Donald's parents, Howard and (Nellie) Jo Reese, on the Reese family farm near Turin in 1946, where their daughters Jo and Karen were born.

She taught at both Arcola's one-room school and the Turin Independent School during her early years on the farm. She attained her bachelor's degree in American studies from Morningside College in 1975. She was the vice-chair of the Monona County Democratic Party for many years and served on the Iowa Governor's Commission on the Status of Women. She actively advocated the consolidation of independent schools into the West Monona Community School District in 1962. A member of the Turin United Methodist Church, she belonged to the Dorcas Circle of the Women's Society of Christian Service (WSCS). In the tradition of the Reese family, she was the Belvidere Township clerk for 25 years. With her husband, Donald, she was active in the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club and assisted in establishing the Loess Hill Prairie Seminar. After Donald's death in 1998, she volunteered regularly at Elmwood Care Centre in Onawa, Iowa.

A lover of literature, nature, reciting poetry, baking and traveling, she car-camped, hiked, canoed and bicycled extensively. With Donald, she rode five consecutive early RAGBRAIs. Together with their children and friends, they crisscrossed the continental United States and traveled to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, Scandinavia and Hudson Bay.

She is survived by her sister, Gertrude Moberg of Seattle, Wash.; her four children and their spouses, David and Lin Zahrt of Turin, Christy Tews and Ron Sutton of Carson City, Nev., Jo and Wayne Nelson of Toronto, Ontario, and Karen and Warren Bird of Berkeley, Calif. Five of her six grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; approximately 35 nieces and nephews; and many friends also survive and remember Luella Reese.

Contributions in memory of Luella may be made to the Iowa Nature Conservancy, 303 Locust St., Des Moines, IA. 50309; the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, 505 Fifth Ave., Suite 444, Des Moines, IA. 50309; the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, 3839 Merle Hay Rd., Des Moines, IA. 50310; United Methodist Church, 219 Wolfe St., Turin, IA. 51040; the Loess Hills Historical Society, Onawa, IA. 51040; or the charity or cause which is dear to you.