Susie Ruth Sidles, 1885-1969

Unidentified Newspaper Obituary - 1969

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Susie Sidles Services Set

JEROME -- Susie R. Sidles, pioneer resident of Appanoose County, died July 13, 1969, at 10 p.m. in Corydon hospital at the age of 84 years. She had entered the hospital the previous day.

Miss Sidles was the daughter of John A. and Elvira Bradley Sidles and they established their home on a farm one mile west of Jerome, in Appanoose County back in 1881.

For many years she was a field worker for the American Home Finding Association of Ottumwa. Upon returning, she made her home on the home place west of Jerome until her death.

She was a lifetime member of the Jerome Methodist Church and the P.E.O. Sisterhood of Seymour, and the Ottumwa Chapters of DAR and Kings Daughters.

Funeral services will be held at Jerome Church at 2 p.m., Wednesday, Liggett Funeral Home of Seymour, is in charge of arrangements.

She was preceded in death by two sisters, Mrs. George E. Rinker (Effie) and Mrs. J. E. Contra (Ettie).

Survivors include two sisters, Mrs. Ray Deibert (Ortha) of Sac City, and Mrs. Guy Streepy (Maurine) of Centerville.

The family requests no flowers.

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The Seymour Herald - 1969

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Jerome News Writer Died Sunday

Susie R. Sidles, the Herald's eldest news correspondent in years and length of service, died Sunday night at the Wayne County hospital where she had been a patient only 24 hours.

Funeral was Wednesday at the Jerome Methodist church and burial was a Jerome cemetery within sight of her life-time home.

In the absence of the Jerome Methodist church pastor, Rev. Kermit Gladfelder, Rev. Glen Lochhead, a former pastor, conducted the funeral.

Miss Sidles, 84, was born in the home where she spent most of her life. She was the daughter of pioneers, John A. and Elvira Sidles. After her education she was an assistant postmaster at Jerome and later a worker in the American Home Finding Association at Ottumwa. Upon her retirement from the latter job in the early 1940s she returned to Jerome and her home. She was writing news for The Herald when the present owners purchased the newspaper in 1947.

There were very few weeks during the past 22 years when Miss Sidles did not have a long column of Jerome and vicinity news. Her family noted that in recent years the news-writing task was an incentive to keep going when others might have given up. She dictated news to a friend as recently as two weeks ago.

She was a member of Chapter DM, PEO, the Ottumwa chapter of DAR and the King's Daughters in Ottumwa. Her principal activity was in the Methodist church of which she was a member, its Sunday school and women's society.

Survivors include two sisters, Mrs. Ray Deibert of Sac City and Mrs. Guy Streepy of Centerville, two nephews, three nieces and friends. Preceding her in death were her parents, two sisters and two brothers.

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The Seymour Herald - 1 September 1949

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Editor's Note: In the 1 September 1949 issue of The Seymour Herald, the paper published pictures and articles about each of its community correspondents. Susie Sidles wrote the column on Jerome for many years.

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To write of Miss Susie Sidles, Jerome correspondent, one would tell of her home filled with memories and relics of a period many years ago. But the setting wouldn't fit a person who's as up-t0-date at this week's issue of Time magazine.

At her front door she has hung the lantern which went with the earlier members of her family to the cow barn every morning and night for milking. But, it has been electrified. Her living rooms are a collection of treasurers in Walnut, needlework and fine copper, pewter and glass. But, lying about, having just been read, are a dozen current periodicals . . . Holiday, Harpers, Better Homes and Gardens and others.

Miss Sidles lives in the home in which she was born and to her has been entrusted the care of the family's heirlooms. Six rooms house furniture, hardly marred, which came by covered wagon from Indiana with her ancestors.

She says there are 80 acres on the place and that with the help of Mike Ponsetto, Jerome man, she manages to keep things in good shape. Her yard is filled with flowers, shrubs and trees which are a haven for wild life.

As field secretary of American Home Finding in Ottumwa, an orphanage, Miss Sidles kept abreast with young people and young ideas. She was a member of the staff for 17 years. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Ottumwa, the W.S.C.S. and P.E.O.

For the unusual in hobbies Miss Sidles has turned to gourds. Not content with collecting specimens and growing them from seed, she has learned the technique of drying them for a year before they are suitable for painting or fashioning into articles. Charm strings, created from all sizes and shapes of gourds, hang at her door as do the wren houses which are made from hollowed fruit with a hole cut in the side. Her friends have tried, with some success, to duplicate her ability in growing the fruit.

A correspondent for several years, Miss Sidles has been one of the most regular ones. Her items represent the town of Jerome as well as the persons who live on farms each way from town.

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The editor sincerely appreciates the contribution to The Jerome Journal of the above articles about Susie R. Sidles by Geraldine Rinker of Augusta, Georgia.