Evelyn Grace Pollard Sissel May 12, 1915 – December 15, 2011
Evelyn Grace Pollard Sissel was born May 12, 1915 at home in Derby, Iowa and passed away December 15, 2011 at the Health Care Center in Mount Ayr, Iowa at the age of 96 years. Evelyn was the oldest child of Grover C. and Kizzie Griffin Pollard. Howard Dean Pollard and Ferne Louise Pollard Gleason were her siblings.
In 1930 the family moved from Derby, Iowa to Eagleville, Missouri, where she graduated from Eagleville high school in 1932. After graduation she attended Northeast Missouri State Teachers College at Kirksville, Missouri. The family moved to Kellerton, Iowa in the fall of 1933 and opened Pollard’s Grocery. When she returned from college, she helped her father with the store and taught piano lessons. The family grocery celebrated 26 years of business in Kellerton.
On September 16, 1939, she married Glen Sissel at the Little Brown Church in the Vale, at Nashua, Iowa and they made their home on a farm south of Kellerton for 12 years. Two daughters were born, Suzanne Louise and Jane Ellen. After Glen’s father’s death in 1951, they moved to the home place and lived happily there for 45 years. When Glen’s health began to deteriorate, they moved from the family’s century farm into Kellerton in July 1996. Glen passed away in September 2001. They celebrated 62 years of marriage. In September of 1998 they were saddened by the death of their daughter, Jane Ellen.
Evelyn was very active in church, school, community and social organizations. She began her faith as a member of the United Methodist Church in Derby, Iowa. She played the pump organ for the Epworth League Youth Group and she played the piano for church and Sunday school in every town in which they lived. She has been a Sunday school superintendent, P.T.A. president, Band Boosters president, United Methodist Women’s Society president and a 4-H helper. She was member of the Eldeen Club and her neighborhood O & E Club. She also was a member of the Order of Eastern Star and was their pianist for 13 years.
Family life was important to her and she always had time for her children, grandchildren, her great-grandchild, nieces and nephews. She also enjoyed visiting with neighbors. Whenever they stopped by, they always enjoyed a cookie, some tea and good conversation. She loved growing flowers, particularly hybrid iris and African violets. She loved working out-of-doors in the garden or her flower beds and she helped with farming whenever she could.
She is the last of her immediate family. Her parents, Grover and Kizzie; brother, Howard; sister, Ferne; her husband, Glen; her daughter, Jane Ellen, and a nephew, Stephen Gleason, have all preceded her in death.
She is survived by her daughter and husband, Suzanne and Wayne Brown of Pleasant Hill, Iowa; son-in-law, David Smith of Maryville, Missouri; two granddaughters, Andrea Smith of Saint Joseph, Missouri and Cynthia Brown Miller (Kevin) of Des Moines, Iowa; one great-grandson, Jack Miller; three nephews, Christopher Gleason (Dianne) of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, John Watson (Judy) of Indianola, Iowa and Jim Watson (Ramona) of Des Moines, Iowa; six nieces, Laura Kay Warner and Deanna Mellow (Ron) of Merced, California, Carolyn Watson of Carlisle, Iowa, Cathryn Potter of West Lafayette, Indiana and Betty Joyce James (Dee) and Evelyn Mae Jepson (Don) of Douglas, Wyoming; two cousins, Elma Newman of Omaha, Nebraska and Marguerite Breithaupt of Corvallis, Oregon, and numerous other relatives and many friends.
Memorials are to HCI Care Services in Mount Ayr and the Kellerton United Methodist Church. Arrangements were by Watson-Armstrong Funeral Home in Mount Ayr.
Services were conducted at the United Methodist Church in Kellerton on Monday, December 19, 2011, with Rev. Raymond Doser officiating. Musicians were Sandy Campbell and Richard and Camille Jackson.
Casket bearers included Terry Barnes, Jim Hoffman, Dave Rainey, Ron Rainey, Monte Akers and Lyman Elswick.
Burial was in the Maple Row Cemetery in Kellerton.
