Thelma Whitson

Thelma Faye Whitson, the daughter of Joseph A. and Gertrude (Hathaway) Marler, was born on March 24, 1918, in Tingley, Iowa. Thelma entered eternal rest on November 17, 2011, at the Afton Care Center, Afton, Iowa at the age of ninety-three years.
Thelma lived in Ringgold and Union counties most of her life. She graduated from Tingley High School in 1937. Thelma began working prior to World War II in a factory in Kansas. On November 22, 1943, she married Verl Joseph Duffield in Wichita, Kansas and moved to a farm in Ringgold County. Verl passed away suddenly in November, 1965.
Thelma was a cook for a Nursing Home in Mount Ayr, and a Nursing Home north of Mount Ayr. Altogether, Thelma cooked for nearly twenty years. She was a hard worker and helped on the farm milking cows and tending her flower and vegetable gardens. Thelma worked many hours picking corn, and canning vegetables and fruit. She moved to Union County in 1986. Most recently, Thelma lived in the Regency Apartments in Creston and had been a resident at the Afton Care Center.
Left to cherish Thelmas memory are her sister-in-law, Wilma Marler, Armstrong, Iowa; and several nieces, nephews, cousins and other relatives and friends. Preceding Thelma in death were her parents; her husband in 1965; and five brothers and sisters.