Ellen Oliver

OLIVER TURNER FORKNER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/27/2010 at 21:10:33

Sioux City Journal
27 February 2002

LE MARS, Iowa -- Ellen Oliver, 86, of Le Mars died Saturday, Feb. 23, 2002, at Plymouth Manor Care Center in Le Mars.

Services will be 11 a.m. Friday at Calvary United Methodist Church in Le Mars, with the Rev. Tom Shinkle officiating. Burial will be in Westfork Township Cemetery, Climbing Hill, Iowa. Visitation will be after 2 p.m. Thursday, with the family present 5 to 8 p.m., at Mauer-Johnson Funeral Home in Le Mars.

Ellen Turner was born Sept. 17, 1915, to Will and Jennie (Forkner) Turner, in Moville, Iowa. She married Eldon Oliver on Dec. 23, 1939, in Moville. They lived in California from 1939 to 1945, and moved to the Le Mars area in 1945.

She taught mathematics in the Merrill (Iowa) Public School from 1949 to 1957. From 1957 to 1981, she was chairperson of the Mathematics Department at Westmar College and continued in Institutional Research until her retirement.

The Westmar board of trustees formally designated her as professor emeritus in 1985. She had a number of publications in professional magazines and held several positions in professional mathematics associations. She received her bachelor of arts degree in mathematics from Olivet College and her master of arts degree in mathematics from the University of South Dakota. She did additional graduate work at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Georgia and the University of Oklahoma.

She was a member of Stanton Evangelical United Brethren Church from 1945 to 1957, Calvary United Methodist Church since 1957, and the Keystone Sunday School class.

Ellen will be lovingly remembered by her two sons and their wives, Richard and Gwen of Buffalo Grove, Ill., and William and DeeAnn of Anamosa, Iowa; a brother, Bruce Turner of Moville; her grandsons and their wives, John and Brenda of Algonquin, Ill., David and Jennifer of Iowa City, Iowa, and Philip and Sterling of Minneapolis; her granddaughters, Jennifer of Denver, Colo., and Delarie of Chicago; two great-grandsons, Niall and Gavin; and many nieces, nephews and friends.

She was preceded in death by Eldon, her husband of 50 years, in 1990; her parents; four brothers, Earl, Paul, Willis and Reuben; and two sisters, Lucille and Erma.

The family requests in lieu of flowers, that memorials be sent to Calvary United Methodist Church.