Feikema, Mary Lou 1922-2002

FEIKEMA, HELD

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, Volunteer (email)
Date: 5/11/2007 at 20:53:43

HINTON, Iowa -- Mary Lou Feikema, 79, of Hinton, formerly of Sioux City, died unexpectedly Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2002, at a Sioux City hospital.

Services will be 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Hinton United Methodist Church in Hinton, with the Rev. Sara Malone officiating. Burial will be in Melbourne Cemetery. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service Saturday at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Nelson-Berger Northside Chapel in Sioux City.

Mrs. Feikema was born July 1, 1922, in Hinton, the daughter of Walter and Mary Held. She attended Hinton schools and Morningside College, where she was a member of the Kappa Beta Phi Sorority. She graduated in 1944, with a bachelor degree in education.

She married Bernard Feikema on July 10, 1944, in Coral Gables, Fla. They lived in Gowrie, Iowa, from 1945 to 1949, Hospers, Iowa from 1949 to 1951 and Hawarden, Iowa until 1958. She was employed as a play ground instructor at various Navy facilities and taught high school for one year in Ponca, Neb. They moved to Sioux City in 1958, where she was employed as a secretary at St. Luke's Hospital and Schoeneman Lumber Co. They moved to Hinton in 1988.

She was a member of Hinton United Methodist Church, where she was an organist and pianist. She loved music and enjoyed sharing it by playing the piano at her church, and several nursing homes and care facilities in the Siouxland area. She taught reading and piano playing at the Boy's Club and was active in several other volunteer organizations, serving as a officer in many of them. She received an award from the Exchange Club in recognition of her volunteer efforts in Siouxland.

She is survived by her husband, Bernard; a son and his wife, Brian and Pan of Fairfax, Va.; a daughter, Barbara Feikema of Long Beach, Calif.; two brothers, Charles Held of Sioux City and Dr. Gordon Held of Georgia; two sisters, Ruth Held of Wakonda, S.D., and Esther Legg and her husband, Joe of Anamosa, Iowa; and two grandchildren, Suzanne Beeler and her husband, Scott of Austin, Texas, and Samantha Feikema of Minnesota.

She was preceded in death by an infant son, Nile Dana; a nine year old daughter, Bette Anne; and a sister, Carolyn Davies.

[Part of the Darrell Easton Obit Collection; source: Sioux City Journal]