Sue Ellen (Goode) BALLARD

BALLARD, GOODE, SNOOK, OXENREIDER, WALKER, HINDLEY, HOLDSWORTH, KLIEBENSTEIN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:48

March 11, 1940 --- July 28, 2018

Sue Ellen Ballard, 78, of Indianola (formerly of Lacona), died July 28, 2018, at The Village in Indianola, Iowa. The family will greet friends from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday, August 6, 2018, at Pierschbacher Funeral Home in Lacona. Funeral Services will be at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, August 7, 2018, at the Lacona United Methodist Church, followed by a luncheon. Burial will be at Cochran Cemetery in Lacona.

Sue Ellen Goode was born March 11, 1940, in Chariton, Iowa, the daughter of Keith and Bernice (Snook) Goode. Sue Ellen's Warren County roots run deep. She grew up on and around the family's Century Farm, raising and showing Herefords at the Warren County Fair and Iowa State Fair. Sue Ellen's family raised Angus, Hereford, and Simmental cattle, hogs, and crops throughout her childhood in southeast Warren County.

Sue Ellen graduated from Lacona High School in 1958. She attended Simpson College, where she was a member of Theta Upsilon sorority. Sue Ellen met William E. Ballard at Simpson, and they were married in 1960. Bill was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Church in 1963, and Sue Ellen started a 49-year career as pastor's wife.

Sue Ellen and Bill served Methodist and United Methodist churches in Armel, Colorado, and many communities in Iowa including Lacona, Liberty Center, New Virginia Larger Parish, Council Bluffs (Broadway), Hamburg, Rock Valley, Doon, Dysart, Centerville and surrounding Appanoose County communities (Cincinnati, Exline, Jerome, Mystic, Numa, and Unionville), Nevada, Oskaloosa, Eagle Grove, and Bedford.

Sue Ellen also was employed outside the home (and church) in various administrative positions, including those with the Rock Valley Community School District, the Centerville Community School District, the USDA's Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service in Boone County, Farm Service in Oskaloosa, and Umthun Trucking in Eagle Grove.

Sue Ellen's life was one of sacrifice, support, and service to God, her community, and others to Bill as a pastor, to the church, and to her three sons, Bill, Steve, and John. She sewed the costumes, bandaged the knees, baked the cookies, sold the raffle tickets, kissed the foreheads, cheered the victories, and endured the losses effortlessly being the best Mom her boys could have imagined. She was a shining example of John Wesley's exhortation that Methodists should Do all the good you can.

Sue Ellen was a beautiful, pleasant, kind, respectful, engaging, supportive, encouraging, and empathetic woman with a sharp mind. She had a keen sense of humor, which served her well in a house full of males. Sue Ellen didn't complain. She overcame a 50-year bout with rheumatoid arthritis and in the end didn't lose her fight with cancer any more than cancer lost its fight with her a draw at best.

Sue Ellen was active in numerous church, civic, community, and school organizations throughout her life including being a 50-year member of the Order of Eastern Star, United Methodist Women (serving as statewide vice-president), P.E.O, and the Board of Pensions of the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church.

After retiring, Sue Ellen and Bill moved to Lacona, where they purchased an acreage with a home built by her great grandfather Samuel Oxenreider. After Bill passed away in 2015, Sue Ellen moved to the Village, a WesleyLife retirement community in Indianola, her final earthly home.

Sue Ellen's family meant everything to her. She made all the family dinners (single-handedly until the daughters-in-law arrived), planned all the holidays and reunions, attended all the activities of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and vacationed at lakes in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Sue Ellen is survived by her three sons, Bill (Kim Walker) of Centerville; Steve (Jennifer) of Iowa City; and John Eddie (Jodi) of Des Moines; six grandchildren, Lindsey and Marty of Oskaloosa; Jack, Ellie, and Maggie of Iowa City; and Georgia of Des Moines; and four great-grandchildren, Maggie Hindley of Centerville, and Hunter, Bently, and Easton Holdsworth of Oskaloosa; a brother, Lisle Goode of Des Moines; a sister, Linda Goode of Des Moines; sisters-in-law, Jane Kliebenstein of Shell Rock and Kristine Ballard of North Liberty; and many nieces and nephews. Sue Ellen was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; a brother, Robert Goode; brothers-in-law, George Ballard and Glen Kliebenstein; and sisters-in-law, Diane Oak Goode and Janice Goode.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Lacona United Methodist Church or the Good Shepherd Fund at the Village.

https://www.pierschbacherfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Sue-Ellen-Ballard/#!/Obituary