Kelm, Eunice W. 1928-2011

KELM, RINGSAKER, SOLBERG, FOWLER, FOSTER, COBERT, THOLE

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 11/1/2017 at 14:34:56

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; Sept. 19, 2011
and The Poweshiek County CR; Sept. 21, 2011

EUNIE W. KELM, 83

Eunice W. Kelm, 83, of Grinnell, died Sept. 15, 2011, at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines.

Funeral services were held at 10:30 a.m., Monday, Sept. 19, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Grinnell with the Rev. Kathryn Roys officiating. Organist was Margaret Amo. Pallbearers were Ryan Kelm, Adrian Foster, Cody Kelm, Stephanie Cobert, Ryan Thole, Dave Good and Rick Barnes. Honorary bearers were Bill Burk, Bob Kriegel, Ernie Blankenfeld, Jim White, Gene Elliott and Bob Christian. Burial was in Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell.

Memorial contributions may be directed to the Eunice W. Kelm Memorial Fund.

Eunice was born May 7, 1928, in Sisseton, S.D., the daughter of William Irving and Martha Louise Ringsaker Solbert. After the early death of her father in 1930, she moved to Iowa living near the Forest Home Community, near Montezuma. She attended rural school near her home, and was a 1945 graduate of Montezuma High School. Following her education, she was employed at the Montezuma Municipal Light Plant as a bookkeeper and secretary.

On Feb. 6, 1949, she was unnited in marriage with Ellsworth Frank Kelm, at the Little Brown Church in Nashua. The couple lived in Grinnell where she was employed at Iowa Southern Utilities for several years. In 1960, she began a career as an agent and secretary/treasurer with Modern Woodmen of American Life Insurance Company, retiring in 1990. During part of that period she also worked at the Poweshiek County Pennysaver in the distribution department. From 1989 to 1993, she was employed at Bates Flowers.

Eunice was a member of St. John's Lutheran Church, the American Legion Auxiliary, Eagles Club Auxiliary, where she was a life-member, Farm Bureau and Grinnell Senior Center. She enjoyed her family and her home, reading, sewing, knitting, dancing, playing bingo and cards, and solving cross-word puzzles.

Survivors include two sons, Frank Kelm of Janesville, Wis., and Dick Kelm of Grinnell; her faithful companion, George Fowler of Grinnell; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Frank in 1988; and one daughter in infancy, Kathryn Marie Kelm in 1954.