Ruth Willits

RUTH C. WILLITS

Mount Pleasant

Ruth C. Willits, 83, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, died Monday, Jan. 18, 2021, in her home at Sunnybrook Assisted Living, Mount Pleasant. Due to COVID-19, there will be no public funeral services. A celebration of life will be scheduled at a later date.

Ruth was born Sept. 8, 1937, in New London, Iowa, the daughter of Theodore R. and Almeda (Miller) Whitham. She married Paul R. (Bob) Willits on March 29, 1958. She graduated from New London High School in 1955 and worked for three years as secretary to the superintendent of schools in New London, and five years as a nurses' aide at the Henry County Health Center in Mount Pleasant. She left employment to help her husband for several years on the farm and to raise their family before returning to work at the Henry County Health Center in Mount Pleasant in 1981, where she worked as a CNA before transferring to the Rehabilitation Department and held the position of licensed Physical Therapist Assistant in that department for the last nine years, until she retired in 2001. She also helped as a leader in Cub Scouts and Brownies and served on the Dover Museum Board of Directors and was an Awana leader in their church.

Survivors include her husband; their daughter, Deb Sianchuk and her husband, Curtis, of Missoula, Mont.; three grandchildren, Max Sianchuk of Missoula, Mont., Brad Willits of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and Erica Lowe and husband James of Lomax, Ill.; five great-grandchildren, Lucas, Timothy and Kaylan Willits, and Brooklyn and Scarlett Lowe; two brothers, David Whitham of Kenosha, Wis., and Paul Whitham and wife Betty of Pryor, Okla.; plus several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; one son, Stephen; and two sisters-in-law, Betty Whitham of Kenosha, Wis., and Janet Gordon of Rochester, Minn.

In lieu of flowers, memorials have been established to EveryStep Hospice, www.everystep.org/donate, Calvary Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and Dover Museum in New London, Iowa.

Elliott Chapel, New London, is assisting the family and online condolences may be left at www.elliottfuneralchapel.com.