Sherwood, Ruth Lavonne 1910-1998

SHERWOOD, GROFF, RYAN, HAYDEN, WYKHUIS, KELLER, JACKSON, YOUNGMAN, SCHROEDER, NESSELROAD, BRALEY

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 5/10/2010 at 08:47:34

Brooklyn Chronicle (Brooklyn, Iowa) Feb. 18, 1998

RUTH RYAN SHERWOOD

Funeral services for Mrs. Ruth Ryan Sherwood, 87, of Brooklyn were held Sunday afternoon, Feb. 15, in the First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn. She died Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1998, in the Brookhaven Nursing Home in Brooklyn.

The Rev. Ronald Van Heukelom officiated and the organist was Anedra Sherwood. Casket bearers were Alan Groff, William Schroeder, Neal Nesselroad, Lowell Sherwood, Brian Braley and Scott Schroeder. Interment was in the Hartwick Cemetery, Hartwick.

Ruth Lavonne Groff Ryan Sherwood, daughter of Benjamin Groff and Grace Hayden Groff, was born March 11, 1910, at Blairstown. She graduated from Blairstown High School in 1927. She graduated from Iowa State Teachers College, Cedar Falls, in 1929, with a two-year teaching certificate. Mrs. Sherwood graduated with a BA from the University of Iowa, 1964, in the same ceremony as that of her daughter, Phyllis.

Mrs. Sherwood was an elementary teacher. She taught in a one-room schoolhouse at Mt. Auburn. She also taught at Hartwick, Guthrie Center, Panora, Victor, HLV at Hartwick and West Des Moines.

In 1934 she was married to Wayne Ryan, who died in 1963. In 1971, she married Virgil Sherwood, who died in 1987.

She lived on the family farm three miles west of Hartwick, except when she lived in West Des Moines while teaching there.

Mrs. Sherwood was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, NEA, County 4-H Council Extension, Ladies Aid in Hartwick, Mid-Iowa Community Action, Deacon Presbyterian Church, Meals on Wheels, Columbian Club, United Presbyterian Women, Hawkeye Valley Area Aging Agency, and many other organizations.

Her hobbies were gardening, sewing, swimming, crocheting, traveling and watching sporting events.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, three brothers, Kenner, Bill and Harold Groff, and a step-granddaughter, Nicole Wykhuis.

Survivors include two sons and their wives, Steven, and his wife, Gretchen, of Grapevine, Texas, and Chris, and his wife, Helen, of Iowa City, three daughters and their husbands, Jeni Keller, and her husband, Darrel, of Oklahoma City, Okla., Phyllis Jackson, and her husband, Bob, of Haddonfield, N.J., and Lynn Youngman and her husband, Van, of Philadelphia, Penn.; one sister, Edith Schroeder of Blairstown; two stepdaughters, Barbara Nesselroad and her husband, Lyle, and Marcia Braley, all of Brooklyn; two stepsons, Scott Sherwood and his wife, Jeane, of Davenport, and Lowell Sherwood and his wife, Anedra, of Brooklyn; three grandchildren; one great-grandchild; 17 step-grandchildren; and 22 step-great-grandchildren.

Nevenhoven Funeral Services was in charge of arrangements. A memorial fund has been established for area scholarship funds.