Mearl Lee MEAD

MEAD, ZANE, WILCOX, ERICKSON, REIF, JOHNSON, BORING, CHAMPLIN, DAVIS, JONES, GARDNER, ANNON, SHAW

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

Mearl Lee Mead
27 October 1886 --- 6 May 1964

Mearl Lee Mead, son of Alva and Mary Zane Mead, was born in Hoopeston, Ill., on October 27, 1886. He passed away after a lingering illness at the Steele Memorial hospital of Belmond, Iowa, at 7:05 a.m. Wednesday, May 6, 1964. He was 77 years, 6 months, and 8 days of age at the time of his passing. Funeral services were held Friday at 2:00 p.m. at the Kastler Funeral Home of Eagle Grove, with Pastor Howard L. Church of the First Baptist church officiating and interment in the Rose Hill cemetery.

His early youth was spent on the farm with his parents in Hoopeston, Ill. At the age 25 he moved to Wright County, Iowa. Mearl Lee Mead was united in marriage to Vada Belle Wilcox of Eagle Grove on September 4, 1912. Their early married life was spent engaged in farming in Troy township. To this union was born eight children: Virginia, Mrs. Carlyle Erickson, Webster City; Frances, Mrs. Gifford Boring, Madison Heights, Mich.; Mrs. Madeline Reif, Ferndale, Mich.; Gail, Mrs. Robert Johnson, Iowa City; Marjorie, Mrs. Francis Champlin, Tucson, Ariz.; Richard Lee Mead of New Orleans, La.; and Amber, Mrs. Darrell Davis of Ames; and Hope, who died in infancy.

In the year 1918 he began working for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad as locomotive fireman and later was promoted to the position of engineer. He was a life member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen and a former member of the Oddfellows lodge.

In the year 1911, his wife Vada Belle Mead passed away after a lingering illness. Later, in the year 1943 he married Sylvia Jones of Eagle Grove.

He was preceded in death by his mother and father, five brothers and sisters, and his late wife, Sylvia. Mearl Lee Mead is survived by three sisters, Estle Gardner of Hillisburg, Ind.; Mabel Annon of Ft. Wayne, Ind.; and Lennie Shaw of Aurora, Ill. Also, one brother Alvie Mead of Covington, Ind. Six daughters and one son, Virginia, Mrs. Carlyle Erickson of Webster City; Frances, Mrs. Gifford Boring, of Madison Heights, Mich.; Mrs. Madeline Reif of Ferndale, Mich.; Gail, Mrs. Robert Johnson, Iowa City; Marjorie, Mrs. Francis Champlin, Tucson Ariz..; Richard Lee Mead of New Orleans, La.; and Amber, Mrs. Darrell Davis, Ames. Also, six stepchildren, eighteen grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren, other relatives, and friends.

EAGLE GROVE EAGLE --- Eagle Grove, Iowa
Thursday, May 14, 1964

Source --- Paul Wilde