SAMS, Margaret A. (1928-2016)

SAMS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/4/2017 at 23:21:59

Margaret Ann Sams
(July 2, 1928 - June 21, 2016)

Services for Margaret Ann Sams, 87, who passed away Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at Vintage Hills Retirement Community in Indianola, will be held 10:30 a.m. Monday, June 27 at the First United Methodist Church in Indianola with burial following in the Indianola I.O.O.F. Cemetery.
Margaret Ann (Ridpath) Sams was born July 2, 1928 in Seattle, WA to John Scott and Lola Elisabeth (Datin) Ridpath. She lived in Seattle proper for many years until her family moved to Lake Retreat, WA, just north of Mt. Rainier. She graduated from a small country school, TaHoMa High School in Maple Valley, WA. After graduating from high school, Marge moved back to the Seattle area and obtained employment at a large county hospital where she worked in medical records for 12 years. During this time she met, through mutual friends, and married Dale LaVere Sams, her husband of 53 years. Marge and Dale were married October 21, 1950 in Seattle and had 3 children, Gary, Gayle and Karen. Dale was born in Iowa and had moved to Seattle to live with his brother, Eldon, after enlisting in the Navy in WWII, serving in Guam. Following their third child Karen’s birth in 1958, the farm life began calling Dale back home. Six months later, in the early spring of 1959, Dale and Marge packed up all their belongings and the family began their journey back to Iowa. One experience Marge talked of often was how they encountered a HUGE blizzard and were stranded for 2 days with no food and a newborn baby!!
Finally reaching Iowa, they lived in a very small house with Dale’s parents, Oral Todd and Hazel (Keeney) Sams, until the June 1959 flood of Otter Creek when the family had to be rescued by boat! They then moved in with another brother, Earl and wife Louise (Sinnard) Sams, before finally moving into a “slightly” renovated basement house near Liberty Center. It was a lonely time for Marge as there were no close neighbors, no telephone, no car (Dale needed it to get to the field) and no Dale! Marge was left with the 3 children during the days by herself. She was always grateful to the Sams parents and siblings for their generosity in teaching her about “the farming ways” and sharing what they had to help Dale and Marge in their struggle to make farming a success! It wasn’t always easy. The following year Dale had an opportunity to lease a 4 bedroom, 400 acre farm/house. The Harry and Margaret Brown farm was where they would stay for the next 20 years. While living on the farm, Marge found employment at the Methodist Hospital again in hospital records. After 2 years there, Marge was offered a position at People’s Bank one day while doing her banking. She took the job as a secretary, moving to manage students loans, then finally to the consumer loan department, where she retired from in 1993 after 28 years. After Dale downsized his farming operations, they moved to Indianola. Following Marge’s retirement, they started living “the retired life” and traveled to various places. One special spot, was Apachi Junction, AZ where they wintered and after many years of renting a place to live, bought a unit of their own at the Golden Sun RV Park. There they loved to hike the many trails, traveled to new sights around Arizona and Mexico, and loved hosting many family and friends vacation visits. Not only did Marge work full time at People’s Bank, she found time to help Dale with the farming duties, raise 3 wonderful children, and still found time to be a Bluebird leader, a 4-H leader (for 5 years) took art lessons from Dorris Currier (which she won many awards at the Warren County Fair), played piano, loved to sing in the church choir, and was a Sunday school teacher at both the Milo Methodist Church and the Indianola Methodist Church. She was also a board member of the Indianola Concert Association. Together, she and Dale, were members of The Hooser Row Community School Association, now a registered historical landmark. Marge and Dale also enjoyed square dancing, bowling, snowmobiling, playing Pinochle with friends, and their most loved pass time of riding their Honda Goldwing motorcycle through a number of states. Survivors include her daughters, Gayle (Glenn) Beckwith, Karen (Steve) Carter; daughter-in-law, Sherry (Bill) Larson; grandchildren, Scott and Mike Sams, Laisha Thompson, David and Micah Beckwith, Brett and Chance Carter; step-children, Jennifer Carter and Lisa Bunch and 12 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Dale Sams and son, Gary Sams.
Visitation will be held 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 26 at Overton Funeral Home in Indianola where family will be present from 2 to 4 p.m. to greet friends. Memorials may be given to the Indianola First United Methodist Church or Beyond for Beckwith Missionary work in Cambodia. This memorial is provided by Overton Funeral Home, 501 West Ashland Ave., Indianola, Iowa, [http://www.overtonfuneral.com/]