VERA DAUGHTON
Vera Emma Gibson was born April 5, 1915, the oldest of three daughters of Nile Huston Gibson and Edith Esther (Campbell) Gibson. She passed away at the age of 101 years on May 8, 2016 at Clearview Home in Mount Ayr, Iowa.
Vera attended rural one-room schools until she entered high school in Grand River, Iowa, graduating in 1933. She took a Normal Training course at Simpson College during the following summer and began her teaching career that fall at the Daughton rural school in Decatur County. Vera and Jim (James Lowell) Daughton were married on January 1, 1935 at the Methodist parsonage in Mount Ayr, Iowa. In 1940, they moved to a farm near Kellerton where they lived all their married lives. They had three children: Patricia Jane, Kathryne Ann, and William Dean. After the children got older, Vera returned to teaching. She taught elementary and junior high grades at Lesanville, Beaconsfield, Ellston, and Tingley schools. During this time she also took college courses in the summers and weekends to complete her education, receiving her Bachelor’s degree from Drake University in 1967. Vera enjoyed her students and she got a great deal of satisfaction from teaching until her retirement in 1977.
Their family was very important to Vera and Jim, and they hosted many fun and memorable family gatherings in the summers and on holidays. Vera had many interests including needlework, ceramics, flower and vegetable gardening, and drawing and painting. She also enjoyed social activities of bowling and bridge club with neighbors and friends. Vera was a member of the Kellerton United Methodist Church. Due to failing health, she entered Clearview Home in the summer of 2010.
Vera was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years Jim Daughton; her daughter Patricia Boswell; granddaughter Julie Boswell; her parents, Edith and Nile Gibson; two sisters Freda Clark and Vivian Radnich; brothers-in-law Maurice Clark and Steve Radnich.
She is survived by daughter Kay (Bob) Sickels and son Bill (Nancy) Daughton; nine grandchildren Ron (Corby) Boswell, Mary Jane Boswell Applegate (Kevin Hunt, special friend), Andy (Dena) Boswell, Mike (Vicki) Sickels, Richard Sickels, Lori (Randy) Sickels Friedman, Dave (Dixie) Daughton, Joe (Dawn) Daughton, Matt (Jules) Daughton; son-in-law Bill Boswell; twenty great grandchildren and step-great grandchildren; ten great great grandchildren and step-great great grandchildren; as well as nieces, nephews, other relatives, students, and friends.
Services will be held at the Watson-Armstrong Funeral Home in Mount Ayr, IA on Friday, May 13, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. with Rev. Rick Hawkins officiating and Nancy Sackett and Richard and Camille Jackson providing the music.
Casketbearers will be Ron Boswell, Mary Jane Boswell Applegate, Andy Boswell, Mike Sickels, Richard Sickels, Lori Sickels Friedman, Dave Daughton, Joe Daughton and Matt Daughton.
Burial will be in the Rose Hill Cemetery at Mount Ayr, Iowa. Memorials are to the Building Project at Rose Hill Cemetery in Mount Ayr.
