Ethel Vivian Dirks 1914 - 2005

DIRKS, JOHNSON, KNIGHT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/18/2017 at 14:45:16

Sioux City Journal
2 September 2005

Ethel V. Dirks, 91, of Sioux City died Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, at a local nursing home.

Services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Riverside United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Janice Bennett officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m. and a prayer service at 7 p.m., at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel.

Ethel Vivian Dirks was born Feb. 24, 1914, in Hudson, S.D., the daughter of Lawerence and Mable (Johnson) Knight. She attended the Hudson School, graduating in 1932. She then attended the Nettleton Commercial College in Sioux Falls, S.D., and later the National Business College in Sioux City, where she completed her business and secretarial courses.

On June 4, 1935, she married Kenneth H. Dirks in Dakota City. During World War II, they moved to various military sites in Nebraska and Washington, where Kenneth was employed in construction and she in hospital clerical work. Upon returning to Sioux City after the war, she was employed at Methodist Hospital in the lab and later as a bookkeeper at J&R Stores, Spiegel and Rogers Electric until retirement.

During retirement, she opened her own ceramic shop both teaching, demonstrating and judging for ceramic shows. Also, she was a cofounder of the Busy Fingers Craft Show and worked with it for 20 years. She retired completely in 1998. The couple celebrated their 57th anniversary in 1992. Kenneth died June 25, 1992, in Sioux City.

She was an active member of Riverside United Methodist Church for more than 50 years, acting in many capacities on various committees in the Women's Society.

She is survived by a son and his wife, Ronald and Betty; six grandchildren and their spouses, Robert and Julie Dirks of Ankeny, Iowa, Robin and Eddie Roberts of Brookings, Ore., Richard and Shauna Dirks of Portland, Ore., Risa and Gregg Hanson of Elk Point, S.D., Renae and Max Cowley of Baldwin City, Kan., and Rebecca Dirks and Kasra Pournadeali of Arlington, Wash.; 15 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; a brother and his wife, Harold and Charlotte Knight of Rapid City, S.D.; a sister-in-law, Jean Knight of Council Bluffs, Iowa; and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; and a brother, Floyd Knight.