Elta Avanelle (Eley) OLSON

OLSON, ELEY, MCCORMICK, STEVENS, VANDEVEN, CHELESVIG

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 5/19/2007 at 22:33:57

Mason City Globe Gazette
02/05/1997

Elta Avanelle Olson, 90, of Belmond, died Tuesday (Feb. 4, 1997) at the Belmond Community Hospital. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Olaf Lutheran Church with the Rev. Lowell Halvorson officiating. Burial will be in the St. Olaf Church Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Tenold Funeral Home.

Elta Avanelle Olson was born Nov. 4, 1906, near Zearing, to George and Nora (McCormick) Eley. Avanelle graduated from Zearing High School and received a teaching degree from Drake University. She taught second grade at Radcliffe, Zearing and Marshalltown. On Sept. 10, 1942, she was united in marriage to Melvin A. Olson at Bethany, Mo. They farmed together on a farm southeast of Kanawha until 1978, when they retired and moved to Belmond. Avanelle was a member of St. Olaf Church, where she was an active member in the women's groups and especially with the quilters. She was a past member of the Kanawha Women's Club, Home Study Club, Wright County Chorus and an active member of Wright County 4-H Clubs.

She is survived by her husband, Melvin, of Belmond; stepson, Clifford Olson and his wife, Joyce, of Kanawha; stepdaughter, Jean Ann Stevens and her husband, Rollie, of Dallas, Texas; and grandchildren, Kyle (Stevens) Vandeven and her husband, John, of Dallas, Texas; Jeffery Stevens and his wife, Stanna, of Arlington, Texas; Kimberly Stevens of Dallas, Texas; stepgrandchildren, Jeffery Chelesvig, Bradley Chelesvig and Kimberly Chelesvig, all of Des Moines; two great-granddaughters, Andrea and Samantha Stevens of Arlington, Texas; and several nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents, two brothers, one sister
and one nephew.