Kingsley, Merna Margaret 1912-1977

KINGSLEY, CARTER, PANETTI, HOLMQUIST

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 3/5/2011 at 09:55:06

The Grinnell Herald-Register; August 15, 1977

MRS. KINGSLEY SERVICES SET

Merna Margaret Kingsley, 65, wife of the Rev. Carl E. Kingsley of Green Lake, Wis., and formerly of Grinnell, died Friday morning, Aug. 12, in Fond du Lac, Wis. She had suffered a stroke a few months ago, and had been in failing health since.

Funeral services for Merna M. Kingsley will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at the First Baptist Church in Grinnell. The Rev. Hugh A. Shively, pastor of the church, will officiate. Burial will be in Hazelwood Cemetery.

The daughter of Eural L. and Lydia Viola Carter, she was born on March 15, 1912, in Burlingame, Kan. She attended Burlingame schools and graduated from high school there in 1929. She later attended Emporia State Teachers College and Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kan.

Following her education, she taught in Kansas schools. On Aug. 7, 1940, she married Rev. Kingsley. After their marriage, the couple lived in California, Washington, and Hamburg, Ia., before moving to Grinnell in 1951.

Rev. Kingsley was the pastor of the Grinnell First Baptist Church for 10 years and was involved in the planning and building of the present church. In 1961, he accepted a pastorate in Fond du Lac, and in 1965 they moved to Valley Forge, Pa., where Rev. Kingsley was involved in work at the home office of the American Baptist Church. In 1975 they retired to a new home in Green Lake, Wis.

Merna Kingsley was a member of the board of managers of the American Baptist Women in five states, a past president of the Roger Williams Association of Baptist Women in Iowa, past president of the Grinnell Camp Fire Girls board, past dean of the Grinnell Cooperative Vacation Church School, and past president of the American Baptist Women in the historic Lower Merion Baptist Church in Bryn Mawr, Pa. She was a member and officer of the Grinnell Historical and Literary Club and taught church school and choir in the various churches for which her husband served.

She is survived by her husband; her two daughters, Karla Kingsley and Ruby Panetti, both of Fond du Lac; a sister, Clara Mae Holmquist of Burlingame, Kan.; and her mother-in-law, Nellie Kingsley of Grinnell. She was preceded in death by her parents.