Wilma Vosburg

WILMA VOSBURG

Grinnell

Wilma Vosburg died at

the age of 91 on Friday, June 18, 2021, at the Mayflower Community Health Care Center in Grinnell. A celebration of her life will be held at 10:30 am Friday, July 2, at the United Church of Christ - Congregational Church in Grinnell. A reception will follow the service in the fellowship hall of the church. Interment will be at Prairie View Cemetery in Gilman.

Memorials may be designated to the United Church of Christ - Congregational, mailed in care of Smith Funeral Home, P.O. Box 368, Grinnell, IA 50112. Memories and condolences may be shared with the family online at www.smithfh.com.

Wilma (Love) Vosburg was born Nov. 1, 1929, along with twin brother, Willard Love, to Granville and Sadie (Davis) Love at Washington County Hospital in Washington, Iowa. They joined an older brother, Leland Love.

The family resided in Elm Grove Township of Louisa County in the Long Creek Welsh settlement. When the twins were a little more than a year old, their mother died of pneumonia in 1931. The children were cared for by a "live-in" housekeeper, Nan Ritchey, their father, and an aunt on the adjoining farm. Granville Love remarried Lois Harper in 1940. It really did "take a village" to raise the children!

Wilma played "6 on 6" girls basketball for Wyman High School and was active in music. 4-H Club and county fairs were also prominent factors during her school years. Wilma was proud to represent her county in the first ever Girls' State at Grandview College in Des Moines, Iowa, sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary. She was valedictorian of her class in 1947.

Wilma obtained a provisional teaching certificate at Iowa State Teachers' College (now University of Northern Iowa) and taught fourth grade in Gilman, Iowa. There, she met a lumberman, Keith Vosburg. They married in 1949 and became the parents of three children: Bill, Lynn and Nancy. Keith and his brother owned The Ice Cream Cottage in Gilman from 1951-1955. Keith then felt the call to return to his roots in lumber and they moved the family to Grinnell. Keith joined Richardson-Phelps Lumber and later bought the business, becoming the proprietor of Vosburg Building Center.

Wilma assisted at the lumber yard and was also executive secretary for the Poweshiek County American Red Cross for 43 years.

Wilma was a den mother for Bill's Cub Scout Troop as well as a Campfire leader for the girls. She taught Sunday school for several years and spent many hours in the UCC kitchen doing food prep and washing dishes.

Wilma moved to the Mayflower Community in October 2014. She was active in Chapter JB of P.E.O. and Lady Elks. She was an avid bridge player and enjoyed reading and doing crossword puzzles.

Wilma was preceded in death by her husband, Keith, in 2008; her twin brother in 2013 and older brother in 2016; and son, Bill, in 2018.

She is survived by her daughters, Lynn (Dennis) Pelisek of Murrells Inlet, S.C., and Nancy (Rhonda Scull) of DeLand, Fla.; daughter-in-law, Pam Vosburg of Grinnell; six grandchildren, Megan Stump, B.J. Pelisek, Blake Vosburg, Allison Vosburg, Joanna Vosburg and Nate Vosburg; and eight great-grandchildren.