Jane De Vries November 15, 1918 – November 7, 2009
Jane De Vries, daughter of Erick and Luella Lay Anderson, was born on the family farm two miles east of Wishard Chapel on November 15, 1918. Jane graduated from Mount Ayr high school in 1936. She furthered her education by graduating from the teaching program at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. Jane taught in Liberty and Athens township country schools including Side Hill country school. It was through a couple of her students, Tom and Dennis Duffield, that she met her future husband, Leland Duffield, Tom and Dennis’ older brother.
Jane and Leland were united in marriage on August 31, 1942 at the Methodist parsonage in Grant City, Missouri. Leland served his country in the US Army leaving home on September 10, 1942. They were able to spend a short time together as husband and wife. Leland was killed by a land mine on Okinawa on April 18, 1945. Jane would later marry Carl Henry De Vries, a widower himself, on January 4, 1952. To this union was born a daughter, Carla Jane. She welcomed into the marriage Carl’s five children from a previous marriage.
Jane loved to teach but she gave up teaching to help with and run the family farm and care for her elderly mother. After Carl passed away on July 27, 1962, Jane continued to live and work on the farm. Jane also worked at the Mount Ayr Health Care Center from 1974 to 1993. Being a teacher at heart, Jane loved to read and loved children; the littler the better. She was an avid gardener and always had a huge garden of vegetables and flowers. She loved springtime as flowers and all of the farm life would start anew.
Jane loved to travel around Ringgold county and the surrounding area. Sunday drives were special to her and she enjoyed taking Carla to every town that ever existed in Ringgold county. Jane sewed and was interested in crafts. She was blessed with musical ability and played the piano and sang. Jane enjoyed people and she loved visiting with people and being with other people. Jane was a member of Wishard Chapel United Methodist Church and was a member of the various Methodist women organizations.
Special memories include homemade ice cream for birthdays and cooking big delicious meals for the farmhands. Jane became a resident of the Mount Ayr Health Care Center and passed away there on November 7, 2009.
She was preceded in death by her parents; both of her husbands; stepdaughter, Ella Dean Ferber; stepson, James Henry De Vries; sister-in-law, Janice Duffield, and two brothers-in-law, Claire Poore and Ted Duffield.
Those left to cherish her memory include her daughter, Carla De Vries of Urbandale, Iowa; sister, Helen Poore of Carlisle, Iowa; two nephews, Gene Poore of Carlisle and Larry Poore and wife Linda of Oklahoma; sister-in-law, Doris Gibson; brothers-in-law, Tom Duffield and wife Joyce of Lucas, Iowa and Dennis Duffield of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; stepson-in-law, Lyndon Ferber of Denver, Colorado; two stepdaughters, Evelyn Van Sickle and husband Keith of Newton, Iowa and Margaret Johnson and husband Dennis of Clarinda, Iowa; stepson, John De Vries and wife Ruth of West Des Moines, Iowa, and other relatives and friends.
Memorial services will be 2 p.m. Sunday, November 15, at Watson-Armstrong Funeral Home in Mount Ayr with Rev. Edward Shields officiating. Burial will occur at a later date in the Maple Row Cemetery at Kellerton, Iowa. Cremation has taken place and there is no viewing or visitation. A memorial fund has been established in her name to be decided later. Online condolences maybe left at www.watsonarmstrongfh.com
