Clara Isabelle (Hall) Denniston (1874-1949)

HALL, DENNISTON, GILLEY, HOLLAND, LONG, CARSON, POINTER, SILVERMAN, SMITH, BIDDICK

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11

From Nevada Evening Journal March 28, 1949 (page 4)

Hold Final Rites For Mrs. Henry Denniston

Last rites were held Sunday, March 20, for Clara Hall Denniston, lifelong resident of the Collins community, at 1:45 p. m. in the home and 2 o'clock from Collins Methodist church with her pastor, the Rev. Aldreth V. Weigel, in charge of the services.

Mrs. Meyer Brekke and Mrs. Marion Burk sang, "The city That Lieth Four Square," "Ivory Palaces" and "Rock of Ages" with Mrs. Fred Mead as piano accompanist. The many floral contributions were cared for by Mrs. M. R. Rice, Mrs. Orville Smith and Mrs. Gerald Gilley.

The pall bearers were two of her grandchildren, Norman Long and Donald Gilley and four nephews, Howard and Tilman Smith, Oscar Hall and Loyd Holland.

Interment was in the family lot in the Evergreen cemetery.

Obituary

Clara Isabelle Hall was born at Peoria, in Washington township, Polk County, Iowa on the 29th day of September 1874. She was the eldest of a family of seven children born to James Marion and Mary Jane Hall. She attended the public schools at Clyde, Maxwell and Collins, at which latter place she grew to womanhood.

She was married to Henry C. Denniston on June 10, 1896. To this marriage four daughters were born, all of whom, together with the husband, Henry D. Denniston, survive. The daughters are Frances Gilley and Ethelynd Long of St. Helena, California, and Forest Carson and Mildred Denniston of Collins, Iowa. She also leaves surviving five grandchildren, Naomi Gilley Pointer, Donald Gilley, Norman Long, JoAnn Long Silverman and Linda Carson, and two great-grandchildren, Norma Jane Long and Gary Donald Pointer. Two sisters and two brothers survive, Mrs. Grace Smith of Cedar Rapids, Mrs. Jane Biddick of Marion, and Milo Hall and Charles Hall of Nevada. Her mother and father and two brothers, Berta and Asa, preceded her in death.

In her early life she joined the Methodist church at Maxwell, which membership was transferred by letter to the Collins Methodist church in 1888. During all of her active life she was a loyal and faithful attendant to her church and its services. She worked in the Sunday school, the missionary societies and Aid society. She was active in both the Collins and Peoria Cemetery associations and Red Cross work as well as numerous other community projects. She was one of the charter members of Happy Birthday Friends club and enjoyed the neighborly contacts offered by that organization.

The Collins community was her favorite place in which to live, where she participated in all of its joys and all of its sorrow. She saw Collins grow and develop from a mere settlement of 15 or 20 houses setting out on an open prairie to the compact modernized incorporated town of Collins. She saw ponds, sloughs and swamps drained and converted into the best and most productive lands, and a two room school grow into a school modern and of accredited standing. Her days enjoyed it all.

When overtaken by ill health and serious physical handicap, she maintained a jovial and optimistic attitude, facing the future without fear or trembling.

On March 18, she had lived 74 years, 5 months and 19 days. She became tired and fell asleep to awake only out there, out there a little way, just beyond the horizon.