Gladys Lawrence

KALONA ? Gladys Vivian Lawrence, 96, died Monday, Sept. 14, 2015. She was a resident of the Solon Care Center.

Celebration of life service will be at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 17, at the Yoder-Powell Funeral Home in Kalona with the Rev. Jim Stout officiating. Visitation will be from 4 to 6:30 p.m., Thursday at the funeral home. A memorial fund has been established for Iowa City Hospice.

Mrs. Lawrence was born Jan. 22, 1919, near Prairie Hill, Missouri, the youngest child of Arthur Evan and Viola (Naylor) Ward. She married George Lawrence on Jan. 20, 1941, in Huntsville, Missouri.

She graduated from Prairie Hill High School in 1937. She and her husband resided in Moberly and Prairie Hill, Missouri, until their move to Iowa in 1952. They lived in the South English community for several years, and lived in rural Keota since 1956. In 2014 she moved to an assisted living facility in Iowa City. In the summer of 2015, she moved to the Solon Care Center. She was a homemaker as well as having worked outside of the home. She worked in a candy shop/lunch counter in Moberly, Missouri, in the late 1930s, where she met George. She worked at Noel?s Pharmacy in North English in the 1950s. In 1963 she began working at Owens Brush in Iowa City. The company was known as Oral B when she retired in 1987. She was a member of the Kinross Christian Church, where she taught Sunday school and belonged to the Social Circle Women?s Club. She enjoyed bowling and was a member of the bowling team at Owens Brush and Oral B. She and her husband enjoyed dancing. They were part of a group of square dancers that promoted the North English Centennial in 1954. They also enjoyed dancing to the big band sound.

Surviving are two sons, Tom and wife Sandy of Solon, and Jerry and wife Linda of Downey; one daughter, Julie Lawrence of Riverside and Joe Schrock of Tiffin; one daughter-in-law, Connie Alt of Cedar Rapids; five granddaughters; one granddaughter?s mother, Gloria Lawrence; and two great-granddaughters.

She was preceded in death by one son, Jack, in February 2000; and her husband, George, in June 2003.