Needham, Nell D.

NEEDHAM, LAFFER, DEWEY, KUENEMAN, OTTESON, WALLACE, GIBSON

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 4/27/2010 at 11:43:48

The Grinnell Herald-Register (Grinnell, Iowa) Sept. 14, 1953

NELL NEEDHAM
DIES FRIDAY
IN CALIFORNIA

Rites at Osky Tuesday
Was Court Reporter,
Wife of Publisher

A prominent and respected ex-Grinnellian, Nell D. (Mrs. C.K.) Needham, died early Friday morning in a Pasadena, Calif., hospital after a short illness. She was a court reporter and wife of a well-known Iowa publisher.

Funeral services will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2:30 o'clock in the Wilcox-Garland funeral home at Oskaloosa. Dr. C.C. Bacon of First Methodist church, Des Moines, will conduct the rites and burial will be in Forrest Lawn cemetery in Oskaloosa.

PALLBEARERS

Pallbearers will be Charles P. Vogel of Grinnell, Henry Bailey of Washington, James Devitt, Hugh McCoy, John Sproatt and Lake Crookham, all of Oskaloosa and Edwin Wilcockson and Nathan Updegraff of Sigourney. All are attorneys.

Nineteen men have been named honorary pallbearers. They are Bob Coutts, Grinnell; Mert Reed, Brooklyn; Judge Frank Bechly, Clyde McFarlin and Ed McNeil, Montezuma; Judge J.G. Patterson, Tom Bray and Phil Hoffman, Oskaloosa; Alfred Baldridge, Schuyler Livingston and Carleton Wilson, Washington; Keith Hammill, John Cross and Ross Mowrey, Newton; Wallace E. Sherlock, Fairfield; Judge R.G. Yoder, C.C. Heniger, Curtis Updegraff and Frank Beatty, Sigourney.

HERE 30 YEARS

Born at Sigourney, Nell Laffer was the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Henry Laffer. She was married to Charles K. Needham when he was publisher of the Keokuk County News at Sigourney.

In 1905 they moved to Washington, Iowa, where they published the Washington Press and later bought the Grinnell Register which eventually they consolidated with the Grinnell Herald. They resided in Grinnell 30 years.

SERVED FOUR JUDGES

Mrs. Needham served as official court reporter in the sixth judicial district to Judge W.G. Clements, Judge J.C. Patterson and Judge Charles A. Dewey. She also served Judge Dewey when he received appointment as federal judge for southern district of Iowa.

Survivors besides her husband are a sister Mrs. Charles Dewey, Des Moines; and a brother Glenn L. Laffer, publisher of Correctionville News. Also surviving are several nieces and nephews, Mrs. W.N. Kueneman, Grinnell; Mrs. Henry Otteson, Davenport; Mrs. Lew Wallace, Winnetka, Ill.; Almon R. Dewey, Macon, Mo.; Mrs. Geneva Laffer Gibson, Kansas City, Mo.; and Henry Laffer, with the army stationed at Camp Carson, Colo.