Dempster, Florence 1897-1970

DEMPSTER, DEMING, PEASE, HALES, ASPEDON, WRIGHT, OPPENHEIMER, WATKINS

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 7/24/2010 at 16:30:15

The Herald-Register (Grinnell, Iowa) Oct. 15, 1970

MRS. DEMPSTER RITES SATURDAY

Mrs. Florence Dempster, 72, the wife of J. Gaylord Demptser of Rte. 1, Grinnell, died Wednesday morning at Grinnell General Hospital. She had been in failing health the past seven years.

She was the daughter of John and Sarah Jane Deming Pease and was born on Dec. 12, 1897, in Fremont County, Iowa. She attended the rural schools near her farm home and graduated from Farragut High School. She attended the University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls and later graduated form Iowa State University with a B.S. degree in home economics.

Mrs. Dempster taught for a number of years at Charles City, Dubuque and Cripple Creek, Colo., before her marriage.

On June 2, 1927, she was married to John Gaylord Dempster at the Little Brown Church in the Vale at Nashua, Iowa. They farmed in Chester Township north of Grinnell for 11 years before moving to their present farm home south of Grinnell in 1938. Mrs. Dempster was active in all phases of her church, the Oak Grove Friends. She was also a Grey Lady for the Red Cross, helping the veterans at Knoxville and the patients at Montezuma for 13 years. She was active in 4-H activities in her community.

Mr. and Mrs. Dempster were the parents of two children, John Lynn Dempster of Des Moines and Mrs. Charles (Janice) Hales of Ft. Madison, both of whom survive.

She is also survived by her husband; nine grandchildren; one brother, Harry Pease of Mission, Tex.; and two sisters, Mrs. Grace Aspedon of Riverton, Iowa, and Mrs. Helen Wright of Farragut, Iowa. She was preceded in death by her parents; one grandchild; two sisters, Mrs. Marion Oppenheimer and Mrs. Dorothy Watkins; and one brother, Liberty Pease.

Funeral services for Mrs. Dempster will be held at 3:30 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 17) at the Smith Funeral Home, with the Rev. Donald L. Mays, pastor of the Oak Grove Friends church, officiating. Organist will be Mrs. Willard Heffner, and pallbearers will include Raymond Harris, Tom Lowry, Robert Otcheck, Dick Sears, Bernard Simmons, and Harold Whitaker. Flowerbearers will be Mr. and Mrs. Willie Laymiller.

Burial will be in Chester Cemetery. Should friends desire, a memorial in Mrs. Dempster's name has been established at the Oak Grove Friends church in care of Mrs. Gus Otcheck.