Rikkers, Tillie (Mrs. William) 1885-1992

RIKKERS, BRUINSMA, DEVRIES

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 3/4/2013 at 08:59:55

Sioux Center News of May 20, 1992
Tillie Rikkers
Tillie Rikkers, 106. the oldest person in Sioux Center, died Monday, May 11, at the Sioux Center Nursing Wing. Last December, on the occasion of her 106th birthday. Willard Scott showed her picture on NBC's Today Show. It is believed she was also the oldest resident in Sioux County.

Services were Friday at First Reformed Church in Hull, with the Rev. Gerald Vande Velde officiating. Burial was in Hope Cemetery in Hull.

Rikkers was born on December 16, 1885, on a farm northeast of Sioux Center, the daughter of Gerben and Sadie Bruinsma De Vries. Her parents had traveled from Pella to Northwest Iowa and homesteaded the property now owned by Gerb De Vries. While a child, Rikkers lived in a sod hut for a while. She attended country school in Welcome Township and was graduated from the eighth grade.

On June 18, 1914, she married William Rikkers at Perkins. They had met at the Perkins Store, which was owned at that time by William's parents. The couple farmed in the Hull and Sioux Center area until 1959, when they retired and moved into Hull. Her husband died in 1969. She moved to the Sioux Center Nursing Wing in 1988. She was a member of First Reformed Church in Hull.

Survivors include two daughters, Sadie Rosters of Orange City and Thelma Dekkenga of Ontario. California; a son, Henry Rikkers, of Sioux Center; 13 grandchildren; 33 great-grandchildren; and seven greatgreat- grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Gertrude Koerselman; two brothers; and seven sisters.