VanderWilt, Margaret Mrs. Amos 1905-2005

VANDERWILT, DEJONG, MUILENBURG

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 1/22/2012 at 12:12:21

MARGARET VANDER WILT
Mrs. Margaret "Mike" Vander Wilt, age l00, of Orange City, formerly of Sioux Center, passed away on Sunday, July 24, at the Heritage House Nursing Home in Orange City.
There will be a funeral service on Thursday, July 28, at 1:30pm, at the American Reformed Church in Orange City. The Rev. Keith Krebs will officiate. Interment will be at the Memory Gardens Cemetery in Sioux Center.
Margaret was born on February 27, 1905, at Orange City, the daughter of Hubert P. and Minnie (De Jong) Muilenburg. "Mike" was raised on her parents’ farm northwest of Orange City and attended country school near home. She then lived with her grandparents in Orange City, where she was employed in Vande Steeg's General Store and attended the Northwestern Classical Academy, graduating in 1923. Then, she was a teacher in country schools for nine years.
In 1932, she married Gerrit Amelius "Amos" Vander Wilt in an outdoor wedding at her parents' home near Middleburg. They resided on that farm a short time and then moved into Sioux Center.
Mrs. Vander Wilt was a loving and devoted mother to their children, Amelia "Amy", Hugh, and Mary. While being a "stay at home mom", she also served as secretary/bookkeeper for her husband's trucking and stump removal business. She was an excellent seamstress, who used her sewing machine to reduce stress and relax. In 1956, Mr. and Mrs. Vander Wilt opened their home to students from Dordt College in Sioux Center. In 23 years, they housed over a hundred students.
While living in Sioux Center, she was a member of the First Reformed Church, where she was a long-time Sunday school teacher and member of the Senior Adult Choir. She made many life-long friends throughout the country, when she sang with the Sioux County Women's Choras. She was also a member of the Sioux Center chapter of Iota Sigma and served many years as the state secretary of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
In January of 1978, Mr. Vander Wilt passed away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1983, Margaret returned to Orange City, where she was a member of the American Reformed Church. She was active in the church's Ruth Circle, Reformed Church Women's Ministries, and the Monday morning prayer group.
In January of 2003, she became a resident of the Heritage House Nursing Home. Margaret's family has many fond memories of her stories of early childhood in the early 1900s, including walking home from school and smelling delicious goodies baking and nutritious meals cooking. But most of all, they remember her strong faith in her Holy Father. She was a prayer warrior, who prayed for her loved ones individually and on a daily basis.
Those surviving to treasure these memories include her three children, Amy Henness, of Wylie Texas; Hugh Vander Wilt, and his wife, Ruth, of Houston,Texas; and Mary Zeutenhorst, of Orange City; five grandchildren, Sandi Bames, of The Woodlands, Texas; Lynn, and her husband, Robert Olafson,of Plano, Texas; Marc Henness, of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania; Todd Zeutenhorst, and his wife, Joleen, of Pierson; and Melissa, and her husband,Michael Gesink, of Granville; nine great-grandchildren, Jessica, Nick, and Heather Barnes; Alexandria and John Olafson; Molly Gesink; and Dalton, Christopher, and Ethan Zeutenhorst; and many nephews and nieces.
In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by three brothers and three sisters and their spouses, Clarinda and Chris De Haan,Conrad and Margaret Muilenburg, Peter and Min Muilenburg, Nell and Ben Hanemaayer, Rebecca and Edwin De Vries, and Hube and Anne Muilenburg; her husband's parents, Walter and Minnie Vander Wilt; and her husband's two brothers and one sister and their spouses, Kathryn and Jeny Dykstra, Tony and Anne Vander Wilt, and Albert and Helen Vander Wilt.
Source: Oolman Funeral Home, Orange City, IA., obit.