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Reisetter, Lois Sylvia 1922-2011

REISETTER, REIRSON, REED, SCHILD, LEITH, CONARD, FRETTE

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 9/25/2016 at 14:16:44

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register
Sept. 22, 2011

LOIS SYLVIA REED REISETTER

Lois Sylvia Reed Reisetter, age 89, died on September 18, 2011, at 6 P.M., exactly one year less ten minutes after her husband of seventy years, Eugene L. Reisetter, died on September 18, 2010 at 6:10 P.M. Lois had battled multiple myeloma for more than a decade. She had enjoyed the past five years as a resident of the Mayflower Community in Grinnell, Iowa, and earlier in her life had lived in Ames, Ankeny, Oskaloosa, and Radcliffe, Iowa.

Born at home on the family farm in Rose Grove Township, Hamilton County on September 13, 1922, Lois was the youngest child of Earl Henry Reed and May Josephine Rierson Reed. Her sister Grace Reed Frette and her brother Ralph Reed predeceased her. Lois attended rural schools in Hamilton County, Iowa and graduated from Radcliffe High School in 1939. She attended Iowa Teachers College in Cedar Falls from 1939-40.

On July 8, 1940, Lois married Eugene L. Reisetter, beginning a seventy-year marriage. While Gene served in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1943-45, Lois stayed at home with their babies, Jeananne Lois, born in 1941, and Patricia May, born in 1942. When Gene came home from W.W. II they began farming north of Radcliffe, and their third child, Jane Reed was born in 1947.

In 1951 Gene and Lois made a momentous change in their lives when they moved to a small farm north of Ames so Gene could farm and attend Iowa State University on the G.I. Bill, while Lois started work at the telephone company. Lois continued to work at Northwestern Bell for over 30 years in Ames, Oskaloosa, and Ankeny, providing financial support for her husband and daughters to earn twelve college degrees among them. Her labor of love inspired her family's goals. Her work ethic, strength, and unconditional love made it possible for them to fulfill their dreams, and her loving aspirations for her family have extended through four generations.

In later years Lois became known as "Grammy Central" because she kept track on an over-sized desk calendar of the whereabouts of each member of the family for each business trip, conference, study abroad program, or vacation. All a family member needed to do was call if she wanted to know where her sister, a niece, or a cousin was at the moment. Lois was known for her baking skills, and to her grandchildren and great grandchildren she was a champion kringla maker. Lois was a quiet, gentle person who had many friends, not because she talked, but because she listened with genuine interest and compassion.

It is typical that she wanted to be sure to thank her Mayflower friends for their care and concern as well as her medical caretakers: her oncologist Dr. Steven Heddinger and his nurse Amy Bell, her hospice nurse Patti Marsho and the other staff of the Grinnell Regional Hospice, and the staff at Grinnell Regional Medical Center.

Lois survived by her three daughters: Jeananne Schild (Don) of Grinnell, Patricia Leith of Salt Lake City, and Jane Conard (Rick Maneval) of Sun Valley, Idaho; five granddaughters: Phoebe Leith (Mark Hommel) of Guilford, CT, Heather Leith (Brett Leopold) of Kansas City, Heidi Smith (Rod) of Grinnell, Carrie Underhill (Nick) of Marshalltown, and Tacy Quinn (Brian) of Gladstone, NJ; and great grandchildren: Anthony and Alexandra Smith, Isabelle and Catherine Hommel, Henry and Eddie Leopold, Rylie and Tre Underhill, and Charlie Quinn and his soon-to-be-born baby brother. She is also survived by a brother-in-law, Howard Reisetter (Naomi) and sisters-in-law: Thora Reisetter (Carrol, deceased), Phyllis Oakland (Henry, deceased), Joyce Hughes, Cleone Reisetter (Don, deceased), and Arlene Reed (Ralph, deceased), as well as many loving nieces and nephews of the extended Reisetter, Oakland, Reed, and Frette families.

Lois was a member of First Baptist Church, 200 Lynn Avenue, Ames, where visitation was at 11 A.M., funeral services at noon, with lunch following on Wednesday, September 21, 2011. Burial was at the Greenwood Cemetery near Radcliffe. The Boeke Funeral Home of Hubbard/Radcliffe is in charge of arrangements.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Mayflower Community in Grinnell, the First Baptist Church in Ames, or the Grinnell Regional Hospice.


 

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