Hazel Ruth (Block) MIKEL JONES

MIKEL, JONES, BLOCK, PICKETT, OSFORD, MERIDITH, TYNDALL

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 4/30/2009 at 10:37:20

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa
August 2, 2006

Hazel Ruth Mikel, 82, former area resident, died on April 11, 2006, at Presbyterian Hospice, Albuquerque, New Mexico of pancreatic cancer. Hazel was born and raised in southern Texas, but spent much of her adult life on a farm near Woolstock with her first husband, John V. Mikel, who predeceased her. Hazel earned a bachelor‚s degree from Iowa State University and a master's degree in library science from the University of Iowa. In 1975 she started her "second career" as a school librarian at Dzilth-na-o-dith-hle Navajo Indian Elementary School, near Bloomfield, NM. She then worked as a children’s librarian at the Victoria, TX, Public Library. After John Mikel‚s death in 1977, Hazel returned to Webster City, IA, and worked until retirement as Library Director of the Kendall Young Library. In 1987 Hazel married M.V. (Vic) Jones and retired to Charlotte, NC. After an enjoyable ten years of traveling and learning, often through the Elderhostel system, Hazel and Vic moved to Albuquerque. In Albuquerque Hazel was active in PEO and various church-related groups at Central United Methodist Church. She also continued her life-long interest in sewing and crafts.

In addition to her husband Vic Jones, Hazel is survived by brothers A.B. (Brantley) Block and Raymond Block; sisters Irma Lee Pickett and Lois Oxford all of Texas; daughter Shirley A. Meridith of Albuquerque; son John R. Mikel and wife Sarah of Washington, DC; grandchildren Heather Meridith Tyndall and husband Robert of Cranbury, NJ, Benson B. Meridith of Silver Creek, NE, and Katherine Mikel of Miami, FL; and two great grandchildren, Emily and John Tyndall.

Cremation has taken place. A memorial service will be held at Asbury United Methodist Church at 11:00 a.m. on August 7, 2006 with burial following at Graceland Cemetery in Webster City. The family requests any memorial contributions be made to the Kendall Young Library Endowment Fund, 1201 Willson Avenue.