Lillian "Lil" (Griffin) Childs (1919-2017)
CHILDS, GRIFFIN, CHAFFIN, GORDY, ANDERSON, BRABAZON, JOHNSON
Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 3/4/2017 at 08:33:27
Obituary From Adams Soderstrum Funeral Home, Story County, Iowa.
Lillian ("Lil") Childs was born September 7, 1919, in Booth Township (near Ayrshire), Palo Alto County, Iowa, to John Griffin and Ethel (Chaffin) Griffin, the sixth of eight children. She passed away peacefully at age 97 on Saturday, February 11, 2017, at the Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota.
Growing up on the family farm, Lil attended grade school in a one-room schoolhouse and later Ayrshire High School, lettering in basketball. Just before her senior year in high school, Lil’s family moved to Boone, Iowa, and her budding basketball career was cut short…Boone High School had not yet started a girls’ basketball program. She graduated in 1937.
Lil was a WOW (Woman Ordnance Worker) in the days of "Rosie the Riveter." Doing her part for the WWII war effort, in 1942, she was one of the first five women hired at the Des Moines Ordnance Plant in Ankeny, Iowa to make 30-caliber bullets. She later worked in Los Angeles for the Air Research Company in a plant that made intercoolers for P-38s, an American Fighter aircraft built by Lockheed, and then in Chicago as a machine operator making airplane parts at the Paymaster Corp.
After the war she returned to Iowa and worked in Ames, where she met and married her husband, John Childs, in 1952. They remained married for over 45 years until he preceded her in death on November 1, 1997.
She had many jobs in her lifetime, including those at McCaskey’s Café, the Sheldon Munn Hotel, as owner/manager of the Kelley Grocery, and at Bourns, Inc., Donnelley Marketing, and Norge Dry Cleaning. She and John also ferried cars at one time for Wilson Cadillac. For many years she also volunteered and worked at the voting polls on Election Day.
Lil enjoyed reading, working daily crossword puzzles, crocheting, baking and applying her green thumb to plants indoors and out. She loved following sports, especially the Iowa State Cyclones and the University of Minnesota Gophers Womens' Basketball. Very special times were the summer months the family shared together at Pike Bay and Cass Lake in northern Minnesota. She was the most caring and trustworthy person, never passing judgment on anyone. She could always find the silver lining in any situation. In 1999, Lil moved to the Twin Cities joining her youngest daughter, Lori, where she enjoyed many outings in and around the Minneapolis area.
She is survived by three daughters, Susan (Bob) Gordy, Mary (Erik) Anderson, and Lori Childs, and three stepsons, Dean (Diana) Childs, Michael (Diane) Childs, and Peter (Kathy) Childs; 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, 7 great-great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. Lil was preceded in death by her husband, John; parents, John and Ethel Griffin; five brothers, Reginald ("Rex"), Vearl, Paul, Lloyd, and Donald; and two sisters, Emily Brabazon and Josephine ("Jo") Johnson.
A memorial service and interment will take place in the spring of 2017 in Ames, Iowa. The family respectfully requests that any memorial contributions be directed to the American Diabetes Association.
http://www.adamssoderstrum.com/
Story Obituaries maintained by Mark Christian.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen