Tom Skinner Is Buried In Iowa

Funeral services were held Monday, August 23 at the United Methodist Church in Missouri Valley for James T. “Tom” Skinner, 92, who died Saturday, August 21, 1982 at Community Memorial Hospital in Missouri Valley. The Rev. Milton Geisler, pastor of the United Methodist Church, conducted the services, assisted by the Rev. David Wittstruck of Mondamin United Methodist Church. Burial was in Rose Hill Memorial Gardens in Missouri Valley.

James T. Skinner was a longtime resident of southwest Iowa, who was moved from the state at the age of two years. After a homesteading stint in Oregon, he and his parents returned to Iowa by covered wagon, when he was seven years old. He farmed in various parts of the Mondamin area from 1910 until 1966, except for several years when he operated grocery stores, dray services and a dairy. He ran a truck-gardening operation, in which he sold his produce off the back of his pickup at the corner of 4th and Erie in Missouri Valley from 1966 until 1980.

His first wife, Blanche Riley Skinner, died in January of 1976. He married the former Mary Olive Gundy of Missouri Valley in August of that same year. They had been regular patrons of the Senior Citizens Meal Site in Blair for the last few years. He is survived by his wife, Mary Olive; a daughter Lena Trede of Neola, Iowa; and a son-in-law, John Trede. Three grandchildren: Marie Eenhuis of Broomfield, Colorado; Janice Williamson of Modale, Iowa; and Robert Trede of Denver, Colorao; a step-daughter, Mary Browning of Missouri Valley; sisters, Katie Mickey of Missouri Valley; Hazel Ottoson of Sacramento, California, Clara McKinney of Brenton, Washington and Zelda Petty of Seattle, Washington; brothers, Delbert of Missouri Valley and Charles of Moravaia, California; three step-grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews also survive him.

Memorials may be sent in “Tom’s” name to the Missouri Valley Rescue Squad.

~~~Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Public Library, Blair, Nebraska.~~~

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