Norma June (Abbas) TAPPER

TAPPER, COOPER, ABBAS, MOELLER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/11/2017 at 19:58:24

April 19, 1924 ---- January 7, 2017

Norma June Tapper, 92, of Leland, IA, formerly of rural Titonka, IA, died Saturday, January 7 at the Good Samaritan Center in Forest City, IA. Funeral services will be 11 AM Saturday, January 14, at the First Baptist Church, 18508 E Hwy 9, Forest City, IA, with Pastor Eric Weaver officiating. Visitation will take place Saturday morning, two hours prior to the service, 9 AM until service time, at First Baptist Church in Forest City, IA. Burial will take place at Ramsey Reformed Church Cemetery in rural Titonka, IA.

Norma June Tapper was born April 19, 1924 at Kanawha, Iowa. She was the daughter of Anno and Anna (Cooper) Abbas. The family moved to a farm near Woden when she was three. At the age of 16 she accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior and became a member of the Woden Christian Reformed Church. Norma’s education began at Orthel Township No. 2 School for her first eight years and then graduated from Woden High School. Following high school, Norma attended Waldorf College receiving a two-year degree and much later (after marriage and children) received her B.A. in Elementary Education from Mankato State College.

Norma’s greatest delight was playing the piano. She began taking lessons at the age of four and continued lessons through her college years, accompanying the Waldorf choir, playing for chapel and many college students. She taught a number of piano students as a junior in high school and continued giving lessons until retiring from teaching. Norma’s first teaching assignment was First and Second Grade at Blairsburg for one year and then moved to Titonka where she taught third grade for three years. She met Donald Tapper in Titonka while roller skating. They were united in marriage on February 3, 1948 at the Woden Christian Reformed Church and lived on the family farm southwest of Buffalo Center for many years. Norma became a member of the Ramsey Reformed Church where she served as church organist and Junior and Senior choir director. She also taught Catechism, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and served in various capacities in church women’s ministries.

During their marriage, Norma and Donald were blessed with two children – Paul and Bonna Rae. After starting a family, she returned to the classroom at Titonka, teaching second grade. Norma taught a total of 24 years at Titonka before retiring in 1987. In 1989, she and Donald moved to Fairfield Bay, Arkansas. After 13 years, they returned to Leland, Iowa to live closer to their daughter. They became members of the First Baptist Church in Forest City enjoying the new church family they would come to love.

Norma is survived by her two children: Paul (Linda) and Bonna Rae (Brian) [Moeller]; and four grandchildren: Michelle, Michael (Kate), Curtis (Arlene) and Aric. Norma was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and brother.

http://www.mittelstadtfuneralhome.com/home/index.cfm/obituaries/view/fh_id/10964/id/4061304