Showalter, Edith Virginia Rhodes (1921-2008)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2008 Sep 15 p. 9

Birth date: 1921 Feb 25

text of obituary:

EDITH SHOWALTER

Edith Virginia Rhodes Showalter, 87, died Aug. 31, 2008, at Oak Lea, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, Harrisonburg, Va., where she had been a resident since 1998. She was born Feb. 25, 1921, to Webster Clay and Sarah Mabel Showalter Rhodes near Dayton.

On April 25, 1942, she married Owen F. Showalter.

She was a homemaker and worked with her husband, Owen, on farms at Broadway, Va., Salem, Ohio, and Timberville, Va., before they moved to Broadway in 1974. She enjoyed caring for her family, cooking, quilting, hosting guests in her home, gardening and singing. While her health permitted, she was an active member of her church’s sewing circle and a volunteer with the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale. She was a member of Trissels Mennonite Church in Broadway, VA.

Survivors include a daughter, Sharon S. Harman of Harrisonburg; seven sons, Harley R. and Myron J. of Harrisonburg; O. Franklin and Ruel J. of Broadway, Welby C. of Linville, Stuart W. of Kalamazoo, Mich., and H.D. Hollis of Ann Arbor, Mich.; three sisters, Esther Rohrer, Ida Rohrer and Norma Koogler, all of Dayton; five brothers, Eber, John and Neil of Dayton, Reuben of Harrisonburg and Luke of Ashland, Ohio; 15 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Owen F. Showalter, on Jan. 21, 2000; four brothers, Mark and Harry of Columbiana, Ohio, and infants Franklin and Daniel of Dayton; a granddaughter, Alicia Showalter Reynolds, in 1996; and a daughter-in-law, Martha Ann Baer Showalter, in 1998.

Funeral services were held at Trissels Mennonite Church of Broadway.