Vivian Lucile DE WITT

DE WITT, ADAMS, SMITH, MURPHY, ROWSE

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 12/29/2007 at 23:14:13

January 7, 2003
Sioux City Journal, IA

Vivian Lucile De Witt, 102, of Sioux City died Sunday, Jan. 5, 2003, at a Sioux City nursing home. No services are planned and burial will be at a later date. Arrangements are under the direction of Christy-Smith Morningside Chapel.

Miss De Witt was born Aug. 1, 1900, to Rev. James Leslie and Verna (Adams) De Witt in Old Umtali, Southern Rhodesia, Africa. The De Witts were Methodist missionaries there at the time. She attended high school in Goldfield, Iowa, and graduated from Morningside College in Sioux City with a bachelor of arts degree in 1925. She received post-graduate training in education at the University of Chicago and at Ann Arbor, Mich. She taught at the elementary school level in Akron, Ohio, from 1926 through 1962, when she retired and returned to her home in Sioux City. She moved to Countryside Retirement Home in Sioux City in 1990, where her sister, Margaret Smith joined her in 1992. She was a member of Grace Methodist Church and the Order of Eastern Star, both in Sioux City, and served as president of the University Manuscript Club in Akron, Ohio. She wrote articles published in both Grade Teacher and School Art magazines.

Survivors include her sister, Margaret; and several nieces and nephews, Homer De Witt, Jr. and Sharon Murphy, both of Sioux City, Jean De Witt of Chaska, Minn. and Robert Rowse of Renton, Wash. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a brother, Homer De Witt, Sr. of Sioux City; and a sister, Muriel Rowse of Ottumwa, Iowa.