Area Obituaries

Vergene Juanita (Wardrip) Smith/Higgins daughter of Clarence Wardrip and Mae (Marsh) Wardrip was born in Ringgold County, IA in 1921. She lived her childhood south and east of Delphos and moved to Benton her senior year. She graduated from Benton in 1940. In June 1940 she married Carroll Holden Smith. To this union two children…

Ralph Allen Hampton was born on February 28, 1961, in Decatur County, IA. He was the youngest of Frank and Maxcine Jane (Smith) Hampton’s ten children. He died at the Mount Ayr Health Care Center in Mount Ayr, IA on Thursday, January 21, 2021. He was a bona fide farm boy, preferring boots and a…

Autumn Gladfelder, 14, of Shannon City, died Thursday, January 28, 2021 at the Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. Private Family Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be Friday, February 5, 2021 at the Powers Funeral Home 601 New York Avenue in Creston. Burial will be private at the Greenlawn Cemetery, east of Afton. Open…

Arthur Carl Garrett, son of Mark and Elizabeth (Mickelson) Garrett, was born at home, north of Redfield, IA on November 15, 1940. The Garrett family moved to a farm south of Diagonal in 1949, and Diagonal would forever be his home. Art graduated from Diagonal High School in 1960. Art went to Wyoming to work…

Anna Lucille (Vanderpluym) Johnson was born in Ringgold County, IA on May 23, 1925 to Louis and Elizabeth (McManus) Vanderpluym. She joined two sisters, Veldeva and Martena and brother, Paul, and later younger sister, Frances. Lucille attended country school Lincoln #2 through the eighth grade and then high school in Lenox, graduating in 1943. She…

Jeffery Allen Haley, 66, of Grinnell, IA and formerly of Creston; passed away Sunday, January 17, 2021 at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City after a seven-year battle with pancreatic cancer. A Celebration of Life and burial will be held at a later date. Memorials are to be established. The family would…

Glenda Kay (Murphy) Crandall, 70, passed away January 13, 2021 in Mesa, AZ. with family at her side. She was born December 8, 1950, in Leavenworth, KS, the daughter of Marvin and Bessie (Poole) Murphy. She graduated from Park Hill High School in 1968 and on October 30, 1969, she married John Dale Crandall in…

Helen Richadene Brant, of Bainbridge Island, WA, passed away December 30, 2020, at home, with her daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and grandson-in-law in attendance in her last hours. Helen was born October 30, 1921, in Ringgold County, IA, to Vergie Grace and Ralph Waldo Thomas. Helen and her brothers, Russell, Lynn, Donald and Neil, grew up…

Jerry Lee Clark was born February 21, 1955 at the Ringgold County Hospital in Mount Ayr to Louisa Lucille (Warner) and Roy Edward Clark. Jerry was educated in Mount Ayr Community Schools. On May 3, 1975 Jerry was united in marriage to Nancy Jane Morse. To this union three children were born Angela, Gary and…