Van Donselaar, Grace E. 1906-1986

VAN DONSELAAR, SMITH, SPEAS, WAGONER, WILSON, KIRKPATRICK, JACK, ONTHANK

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 9/22/2012 at 10:34:01

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; Dec. 15, 1986

VAN DONSELAAR RITES MONDAY

Grace E. Van Donselaar, 80, of Grinnell died Friday, Dec. 12, at Friendship Manor.

Funeral services were conducted at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Grinnell First Friends Church, with the Rev. Keith Briggs, pastor of the church, and the Rev. Kenneth Santee, pastor of the Lynnville Friends Church, officiating. Organist as Jolene Jones, and vocalist was Roger Kendall.

Pallbearers were Roscoe Brand, Arnold Ratcliff, Ross Ratcliff, Lyle White, Myron White and Rodney Van Maanen. Burial was in Hazelwood Cemetery, with the Smith Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

The daughter of Charles and Millie Smith Speas, she was born on March 13, 1906, in Green Mountain. The family moved to the Lynnville area and she attended the Black Oak rural school.

On Oct. 28, 1926, she was married to Henry Van Donselaar at Bangor. Mr. and Mrs. Van Donselaar farmed in the Sugar Creek community near Grinnell until 1980 when they moved to Grinnell. Mrs. Van Donselaar had lived at Friendship Manor since February 1983. She was a member of the Lynnville Friends Church.

Survivors include her children, Dorothy Wagoner of Modesto, Calif., Gordon of Grinnell, Marvin of Snowflake, Ariz., Juanita Wilson, LaVerne, and Evelyn Kirkpatrick, all of Fort Worth, Texas, and Paul of Brea, Calif.; 20 grandchildren; 15 great grandchildren; one sister, Abbie Jack of Montezuma; and five brothers, Eldon Speas of Brooklyn, the Rev. Joseph Speas of Lansing, Mich., the Rev. Howard Speas of Youngsville, Pa., Ralph Speas of Akron, Ohio, and Floyd Speas of Union.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; one grandson; one sister, Edith Onthank; and two brothers, Harold and Clarence Speas.