Harms, Joyce E. 1929-2002

HARMS, EILKS, ROWE

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 7/5/2008 at 18:41:26

Joyce E. Harms, 72, of Sioux City died unexpectedly Friday, Feb. 15, 2002, at s Sioux City hospital.

Memorial services will be 2 p.m. Friday at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel, with the Revs. Donald Cameron of First Presbyterian Church, and Donna Gray of Lake Park Presbyterian Church, officiating. The body was cremated. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m. and a prayer service at 7:30 p.m., at the funeral home.

Mrs. Harms was born Feb. 24, 1929, in Sioux City, to Henry and Edythe (Rowe) Eilks. She attended Le Mars, Iowa school and graduated from Le Mars High School in 1946. She attended Westmar College, graduating in 1950.

She married Willis H. "Bill" Harms on Nov. 18, 1947, in Le Mars.

Mrs. Harms taught home economics at Merrill and Hinton, Iowa Public Schools from 1946 to 1948. She was a social worker with the Woodbury County Department of Social Welfare from 1948 to 1952. She was director and teacher of New Hope Center in Sioux City, a private school for severely retarded children, from 1955 to 1957. She was executive secretary for the March of Dimes of Woodbury County and was responsible for casework and fund raising from 1959 to 1963.

She was a bookkeeper and responsible for public relations at Midtown Music and Amusement Co., a family-owned business, from 1976 to 1984. From 1983 to 1984, she was a substitute teacher for the Sioux City Public Schools. From 1984 to 1996, she, along with her husband, managed the Clifton Apartments in Sioux City. She enjoyed spending many summers and weekends at the family cottage in Okoboji, Iowa.

She was an active 50-year member of First Presbyterian Church of Sioux City, Plymouth, Le Mars and Lake Park, where she was a Sunday School teacher and leader. She was a member of LaSertoma of Sioux City, where she served as a former president, former board member and former governor for LaSertoma for the State of Iowa. She was also named LaSertoma of the Year in 1982. She was a former board member of Gordon Recovery Center and a former board member of St. Luke's Regional Medical Center.

She was a 50-year member of Order of the Eastern Star Rose Croix Chapter and active in Rainbow Girls and served as a mother advisor of Rainbow Girls for several years.

She is survived by her husband, Willis H. "Bill"; a daughter and her husband, Patricia (Harms) and Rory Kelly of Sioux City; a son and his wife, Mark and Susan Harms of Hartley, Iowa; and her grandchildren, Chad Newell, Tiffany Janssen and her husband, David, and Parker and Preston Harms.

She was preceded in death by her parents; a daughter, Gloria Lynn Harms; and a son, Charles Jay Harms.

~Source: The Sioux City Journal--part of the D. Easton Obituary Collection