Oliveria, Mary Lee 1929-2015

OLIVERIA, SMITH, PARSONS, INGRAHAM, IVERSON, LANDER, LOCHEISER, DVORAK

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 4/22/2015 at 19:02:05

Mary Lee Oliveria, age 86, of Colfax, passed away peacefully at her home in Colfax on Sunday, April 19, 2015, surrounded by her loving family. Funeral mass will be held on Friday, April 24, 2015, at 10:30 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Colfax. Visitation will take place on Thursday, April 23, 2015 from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. at the church. There will be a Vigil Service at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Condolences may be left for the family at www.coburnfuneralhomes.com.

Mary was born on March 22, 1929, to Sumner Reed and Maria Hazel (Smith) Parsons on a farm just south of Algona, Iowa. Mary Lee attended country schools and by the age of nine was already helping her teachers teach her fellow classmates with reading and math. Mary graduated from Burt High School at the age of 16, then went on to attend Wartburg College, graduating with a two year teaching certificate. She then went on to her first teaching job at Hanlontown, Iowa. There she met John Oliveria, he was the superintendent of the golf course there. They married at the Little Brown Church in Nashua in June of 1949. To this union one daughter was born in February of 1953, Vicky Lee was their only child. The family then moved to San Antonio, Texas for the next seventeen years. Mary and John divorced in 1969, and Mary and Vicky moved back to Iowa. She went back to school at Drake University, graduating in 1969, while teaching in Colfax. Mary taught at Colfax until her retirement in 1989. She then accepted a position as a teacher's assistant at Sacred Heart School in West Des Moines for another 13 years. She never left teaching. It was her first love and knew if you had an education there wasn't anything you couldn't do and accomplish.

She loved gardening and watching things grow. She loved her many pets through the years and always had a dog or two. Being a teacher, she loved helping her great grandchildren with their homework and reading to them. The times we all shared together will be greatly missed.

Those left to honor her memory include her daughter, Vicky Lee (Patrick) Olivera Ingraham Iverson; three grandchildren, Kristina Ingraham, Joel Ingraham and Anthony Iverson; and three great grandchildren, Zevin Lander, Kaytlynn Ingraham and Addison Kochheiser. She will also be missed by her brother, Russell Reed (Caradene) Parsons of Burt, Iowa and her sister, Barbara (Ray) Parsons Dvorak of Arlington, Texas; as well as her nieces and nephews. Preceding her in death were her parents and a step grandchild, Jeremy Iverson. ~ The Coburn Funeral Home, Colfax, Iowa 19 Apr 2015.