Terpstra, Nellie (Van Kooten) 1914-2009

TERPSTRA, VAN KOOTEN, SCHUTT, VANDER LEEST

Posted By: Ernie Braida (email)
Date: 1/13/2010 at 09:50:32

Nellie Van Kooten, the fourteenth of the seventeen children of Henry and Cornelia Schutt Van Kooten, was their second child to be born in the United States. Her older brothers and sisters were born in the Netherlands. She was born on April 25, 1914, in Mahaska County, north of New Sharon, Iowa.

Nellie attended grade school near Searsboro, Iowa where she graduated from the 8th grade. During those years she was a basketball player who played guard. As a young girl Nellie made profession of her faith at the Sully Christian Reformed Church in Sully, Iowa.

It was there that she met Harry A. Terpstra, an only child of Adam and Nettie Vander Leest Terpstra. Nellie and Harry were united in marriage according to the Ordinance of God and Laws of the State of Iowa at Searsboro on the 7th day of November in the year of our Lord 1930, by the Rev. G. Blystra. To this union five children were born: a son who died in infancy, Neola Caryl, Harley Addison, Afton Eugene and Russell Lee. The first sixteen years of their marriage were spent farming in the Sully and Killduff, Iowa area.

Then in 1946, they moved to Pella, Iowa. Soon thereafter Harry became a truck driver while Nellie was employed as a waitress. She was employed at the Maid-Rite in 1958 when her daughter, Neola Kooyman, sustained extensive burns. Nellie terminated her employment to assist with her care. She later became a clerk at Black’s Style Shop in Pella, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Buying and selling clothing became a lifelong passion for Nellie. Her last employment was at the Rolscreen Company in Pella where she worked in the folding door department. She was gainfully employed there until she was 70 years of age.

Nellie and Harry enjoyed their retirement on an acreage south of Pella where they were living when he passed away on July 25, 1991, at the age of 79 years.

Following his death Nellie soon moved into an apartment at 700 Liberty Street in Pella. She enjoyed the years and the convenience of living there until her health necessitated more assistance, more than her daughter, Neola, could reciprocate in providing.

Nellie became a resident at the Griffin Nursing Center in Knoxville, Iowa in July of 2007 where she passed away on Saturday afternoon, April 11, 2009, two weeks prior to her 95th birthday.

Those who will cherish her memory are her daughter, two sons, a son-in-law, three daughters-in-law and their families: Neola and Marvin Kooyman of Pella, Iowa; Mary Ann Ferguson (Harley Terpstra) of Gilman, Iowa; Afton and Kathy (Derksen) Terpstra of Harvey, Iowa and Russell and Susie (Wolvers) Terpstra of Numa, Iowa.

Of her original family, Nellie leaves her sister, Pauline (George) Terpstra of Pella, her brother, Albert Van Kooten of Port Smith, Arkansas and a sister-in-law, Lucille (Paul) Van Kooten of Denver, Colorado.

Nellie was preceded in death by her husband, Harry Terpstra; her son who died in infancy in 1931, her son, Harley A. Terpstra, who was killed in a horse related accident in 1976 at the age of 40 years; an infant grandson, James Dean Terpstra, who died in infancy in 1962; her parents, Henry and Cornelia Van Kooten; her parents-in-law, Adam and Nettie Terpstra; eight brothers and their wives: Cornelius, who died as an infant of three months in Holland, Cornelius and Jennie Van Kooten, Henry and Wilma Van Kooten, Peter and Jennie Van Kooten, Roy and Nellie Van Kooten, Gerrit and Durky Van Kooten, Everett Van Kooten and Paul Van Kooten; and six sisters and their husbands: Tillie and Dick Van Klaveran, Hattie and John Van Arkel, Cornelia and Henry Van Steenwyk, Dena and Jake Van Kampen, Henrietta and her husbands, John Nieuwsma and Dick Rolffs, Cora and John Bruxvoort; a sister-in-law, Marie (Albert) Van Kooten and a brother-in-law, George (Pauline Van Kooten) Terpstra.

Nellie was a longtime, faithful member of the First Christian Reformed Church in Pella.

Interment: Oakwood Cemetery at Pella, Iowa

Van Dyk-Duven Funeral Home