Eva Irene Arthur McDowell, 95, of Oskaloosa and formerly of Grinnell, died Apr. 29, 2022, at Hospice Serenity House in Oskaloosa. A graveside service and burial was held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 4, at Jackson Township Cemetery, Montezuma, with the Rev. Dr. Dondrea Walker, First Baptist Church in Marion, officiating. Honorary bearers were Dennis Watson, Charles Watson, Robert Mitchell, and David Figland. Memorial contributions may be designated to Hospice Serenity House Donor Wall, Mahaska Health Foundation in Oskaloosa for a memorial plaque in her name.
Eva was born Nov. 24, 1926, to Cecil Hobart and Pansy Blossom Gerard Arthur on a farm between Lynnville and Searsboro. As a child, Eva was so bashful she wouldn’t eat at the table if someone talked to her. She was a “tomboy” who loved to go fishing and hunting with her brothers. Eva graduated from Searsboro High School in May 1944. She attended William Penn College in Oskaloosa and received her teaching certificate in October 1946. Her first teaching position was at Pleasant Township, Ray Cleland School, teaching seven different grades. She taught there for two years making $35 a month. She then taught third and fourth grades at Searsboro for 17 years, later substituting for the Lynnville-Sully School District and with the After School Program in Grinnell.
Mar. 3, 1946, she was united in marriage to Roger Jack McDowell at Church of Christ in Montezuma, and soon after Roger left for the service. The couple had two daughters, Penny Jo and Vicki Lynne.
Eva was the chairperson of the March of Dimes from 1946 until 1950; and she has been a member of the Order of the Eastern Star for 73 years currently belonging to the Central Chapter #57 in Marshall-town. She went through the chairs and was also Worthy Matron.
Eva loved her family dearly! She enjoyed embroidery, games, spending time with friends, gardening, hearing from her former students, and cooking. She was well known for her homemade noodles and making mints. She was past president of Searsboro Garden Club for four years and secretary for an additional four years. Eva worked for Margaret Arnold at her shoe store for a few years and was cleaning houses into her 80s! After retiring, she joined the Eagles Club in Grinnell and also the local Grange near Rock Creek Lake.
Eva is survived by two daughters, Penny Jo (Jerry) Veldhuizen and Vicki Lynne (Richard Barnes) Latcham; four granddaughters, Kelsey Veldhuizen, Nicole (Blake) Willard, Cassie Veldhuizen, and Lacie Latcham; three great-grandchildren, Leo Johnson and Delilah and Korver Willard; two sisters, Shirley Tice of Kellerton and Doris Lowry of Grinnell; and many friends and former students who continued to contact her up to the time of her death.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Roger in 1981; her sisters Margaret, Betty, and Aileen; her brothers Kenneth, Robert, Keith, and Ward; and in-laws Ollie and Velva Hull McDowell.
