SYLVIA MAE HALL

    Sylvia Mae Hall, age 94 formerly of Decatur, Iowa, the daughter of George and Ella Virginia (Fry) South, was born May 7, 1920, near DeKalb in Decatur County, Iowa.  She passed away on Monday, July 7, 2014, at the Mount Ayr Health Care Center in Mount Ayr, Iowa.
    Sylvia attended West #4 Country School through the eighth grade and graduated from Van Wert High School in 1937. On August 30, 1941, she was united in marriage to Ira Alberta Hall in Bethany, Missouri. They were blessed with three children, Jerry Lee, Phyllis Lenora and Darrell Eugene. Sylvia was a homemaker, a helpmate on the family farm and also worked at O’Bryan Brothers sewing factory for 18 years after the children were away from home.
    Sylvia and Ira enjoyed attending dances their entire married life and in later years spent many fun evenings attending the jam sessions held at the Barnum Center in Decatur, Iowa. She was well known for her delicious custard pie. In her lifetime, she baked many custard pies for family reunions, community socials, benefits and funeral dinners, but she did not eat them herself.  Custard was not to her liking!
    Preceding her in death were her parents; husband Ira in 1992; son Jerry in 1997; sisters, Grace Twombley, Helen Reed, Opal Holmes, Edith Patton and Goldie Stark; half sisters, Florence Weldon and infant Mabel; brothers, Carl South, Ira Paul South, John South, and infants Theodore and Dean; and half brothers, Charlie South and Frank South.
    Sylvia is survived by her children, Phyllis Sickels and husband Mack of Mount Ayr and Darrell Hall and wife Susie of Ozark, Missouri; daughter-in-law Janna Priest and husband Bill of Decatur, Iowa; five grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren, Julie Pew and children, Jessica and Gavin Pew of Lincoln, Nebraska; James Sickels and wife Tami and children, Gabriel, Zane, Jackson, Maci Clare, and Ezekiel Sickels of Pickens, South Carolina; Robert Hall and children, Jake and Brett Hall of Kansas City, Missouri and Ashlynn and Parker Locke of Portland, Oregon; David Hall of Parsons, Kansas; and Kurtis Hall and wife Beth and children, Isaac, Eily, Abram, and Anden of Leon, Iowa; sisters-in-law, Lura South Sheets and Margaret Hall; and other relatives and friends.
    Funeral services were held at the Slade – O’Donnell Funeral Home in Leon, Iowa on Thursday, July 7, 2014 at 2 p.m. with Pastor Dale Short officiating.   Burial was in the Van Wert Cemetery, Van Wert, Iowa.  
    Memorials may be given to the Barnum Center in Decatur.