Vesta L. Gingerich

KALONA ? Vesta Louise Troyer Gingerich, 97, of Kalona, died Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016.

Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, Sept. 16, at the Yoder-Powell Funeral Home in Kalona. The family will greet friends from 9 a.m. until service time, Friday at the funeral home. A memorial fund has been established for Pleasantview Home. The Yoder-Powell Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

Mrs. Gingerich was born March 3, 1919, in McPherson, Kansas, the daughter of Roy S. and Nora (Miller) Troyer. She married Paul E. Gingerich, whom she had met at Hesston Academy, on May 22, 1940, at her parents? home in Hesston, Kansas.

She and her family lived near Hubbard, Oregon, from 1921 to 1928, and then moved to Hesston, Kansas, where her father worked in the King Motor Company, Hesston Feed Mill and Roy Al Turkey Plant, and her mother cooked for several years at Hesston Academy. She attended Hesston Academy, where she played basketball, sang in the school choir and a women?s sextet, and had a busy social life. She completed two years of teacher training and taught for one year at the District 20 (Kansas) rural grade school. In 1943 she moved with her husband and son to a farm near Holbrook, Iowa, where they farmed for the next 31 years and welcomed three more children. In addition to tending the garden and housework, she took time to teach Sunday school and Bible school at West Union Mennonite Church. Later she attended First Mennonite Church in Iowa City. In 1974 she and her husband moved from Iowa back to Hesston, Kansas, where they enjoyed many friends at Hesston Mennonite Church, and various retirement hobbies. In 2005 they moved back to Iowa, settling in at the Pleasantview Retirement Community in Kalona. She was known as a calm, gracious woman, peaceful, stalwart and brave, dedicated in her Christian faith.

Surviving are three sons, Keith and wife Mildred (Wenger) of North English, Ken and wife Noreen (Preheim) of Iowa City, and Roger and wife Diane (Bucher) of Aurora, Colorado; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; one daughter, Linda; one brother, Ordo; one infant granddaughter; and one great-granddaughter.