Wilma Leona McDowell, 85 of Rock Port, Missouri died Monday, January 2, 2012, at Pleasant View Nursing Home, Rock Port, Missouri.

Wilma was born at Rosendale, Missouri, February 28, 1926 to David and Margaret (Kenner) Wooten. On March 20, 1946 she married Otha Wilson McDowell who preceded her in death January 29, 2007.

In 1953 Wilma started operating the Topkick Cafe, Rock Port and also worked at the PM Place Store.

Wilma was preceded by husband, parents, brothers Melvin and Lee Wooten, and sisters Mae Cruth and Mable Stevens.

Surviving are son Robin McDowell, St. Joseph, Missouri and daughters, Sharon Powell, Saint Joseph, and Debra Hurst, Watson, Missouri, nine grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren.

Inurnment will be 2:00 PM, Friday, January 6, 2012 at Nodaway Memorial Gardens, Maryville, MO

004Gertrude Marie Spieckermann, daughter of August and Louise (Oswald) Spieckermann, was born September 23, 1918, in Bloomfield, Nebraska. She passed away on January 26, 2012, at the age of 93, while a resident at Pleasant View Nursing Home, Rock Port, Missouri.

When Gertrude was nine years old, her father, the pastor at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Bloomfield, suddenly died an untimely death at the age of 52. Her mother was then encouraged to move back to Rock Port where the Oswald family thought they could be of more help to her and her three children. After moving to Rock Port, Gertrude completed her high school education and enrolled in Tarkio College for two years. She then was contracted to teach at Benton Center country school southwest of Langdon, Missouri, for the 1937 and 1938 school years. She also taught for a time in the Rock Port system while completing her degree and obtaining a life certificate to teach elementary classes in Missouri on July 1, 1943. So began the occupation that would later become a passion that would occupy many years of Gertrude’s working life.

As World War II was now in full swing with maximum war production required, Gertrude moved to Kansas City where she helped assemble airplane bomber parts. After the war was over, she moved back to Rock Port briefly before moving into Iowa. Details of the years spent in Iowa are sketchy to the remaining family, but it is known that she did some work while there that had to do with education, whether it was teaching or support staff work.

Later, while living in Des Moines doing clerical work for an insurance company, she noticed an ad in the Des Moines Register requesting applications from teachers living in the Midwest who might want to move to Oregon to help fill a teacher shortage there for much higher wages than were being paid in the Midwest. That application and acceptance by the Portland School District began a tenure that would see Gertrude accepting assignments ranging from third to the sixth grade. During her years there, she was commended on several occasions by building principals, the district superintendent, and later on the state level. Gertrude taught in Portland, for over twenty years, retiring in 1983.

After retirement, the decision was made to move back to Rock Port in 1984, to be near her sister, Louise Tiemeyer and family. After returning to Rock Port, she provided many enjoyable hours of conversation for family and friends. Before her health failed she attended First Lutheran Church, the successor church of First Evangelical Lutheran, which her father once pastored and where he met her mother, Louise Oswald.

She was preceded in death by her parents, August and Louise Spieckermann; her brother Herbert and his wife, Eva Jean and her sister Louise and her husband, John Tiemeyer. Survivors include three nephews and one niece: Jean and Steve Spieckermann, children of brother, Herbert and Eva Jean Spieckermann; Rich Tiemeyer and wife, Toni Messina, Columbia, Missouri; and Paul Tiemeyer and wife Karen, Rock Port, Missouri, both sons of sister, Louise Tiemeyer. She is also survived by two great-nephews, Matt Tiemeyer and his wife Shelly, their sons, Caelan and Will, of Shoreline, Washington, and Nathan Tiemeyer and his wife, Rachel, their sons, Jack and Ben and daughter Hannah, Columbia, Missouri

Greenhill Cem, Rock Port. Minter Funeral Chapel, Rock Port.

006Helen (Irvine) Knepper, formerly of Tarkio, died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Mercy Hospice in Johnston, Iowa. She was 98 years old. She was a homemaker, a supportive wife and mother, an active church member, a gardener, and a lover of roses. Helen and her late husband, V. Laurence Knepper, both lived in Atchison County in their childhood and youth. Helen Louise Irvine was born Nov. 8, 1913, on her parents' farm near Fairfax. She was the daughter of Hamilton A. and Maude (McElroy) Irvine. At Daleview High School Helen played guard for 4 years on the girls' basketball team. She also ran track and did dramatic readings. She graduated from Daleview in 1931 with academic honors. Helen and Laurence were married Nov. 25, 1937, in Tarkio in a pastor's home. Their son, John Irvine Knepper, was born in 1940, and their daughter, Kathryn Elaine Knepper, was born in 1944.

The young couple made their first home in Sikeston, Missouri, where Laurence was teaching high school science. From Sikeston they moved to Webster Groves, Missouri, for another teaching job. When Laurence served in the Navy in 1944-45, Helen and the two children lived with Laurence's father, J. W. Knepper, on the Knepper farm east of Tarkio in the York community. After the War, the family lived for a few years in Lincoln, Nebraska. When J.W.'s health began to fail, Helen and Laurence moved their family back to the Knepper farm, which thereafter was managed by Laurence. Helen, Laurence, and their children lived on the farm from April, 1950, until August, 1959. During that time Helen was a project leader in the York 4-H club. Also during those years Helen taught Sunday School for young children at York Presbyterian Church. In their last years on the farm, Laurence supplemented their income by teaching in Rock Port. Then in August, 1959, the couple left farm life so that Laurence's only work would be in teaching and guidance counseling, which he did until 1976 in St. Louis suburban school districts. When Laurence retired, he and Helen moved back to northwest Missouri. Putting their furniture in storage, they lived in a rented house while Laurence and Francis (Spud) Irvine (Helen's brother from Fairfax) built a house for Helen and Laurence on Elm Street between Tarkio High School and Tarkio College. Having been active in Presbyterian Churches most of their married life, Helen and Laurence joined the Presbyterian Church in Tarkio. Helen maintained her membership there until her death.

Widowed in 1999, Helen moved from Tarkio to Perry, Iowa, in 2003 to live near her daughter. For almost 8 years she lived independently in an apartment in a retirement community in Perry. In July, 2011, her health began to fail and she moved to a nursing home in Perry. She lived her last 6 days in Mercy Hospice, Johnston, Iowa.

Helen was preceded in death by 3 half-brothers, 5 brothers, 2 sisters, her husband, V. Laurence Knepper, and her son-in-law, Melvin B. Roblee.

Helen is survived by her son Irvine Knepper and wife, Charlotte, of Conroe, Texas; and daughter Kathryn Roblee of Perry, Iowa; granddaughters: Melinda Fischer and husband, Chris, of Lawrence, Kansas; Michelle Robenalt and husband, John, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Christine Brewood and husband, Todd, of Olathe, Kansas; grandsons: Jefferson Knepper Roblee and Lincoln Knepper Roblee, both of Kansas City, Missouri; and great grandchildren: Katherine and Emily Fischer; Charlie and Liam Robenalt; and Briana and Nathan Brewood. Helen is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews. Relatives in Rock Port are Janis Irvine; Steve Irvine and wife, Kitty; and James D. Irvine and wife, Johny. Tarkio relatives are Teresa Smith and husband, Bill; Mary Lou Knepper; and Margaret Irvine.

Memorial Service: 11:30 A.M., Saturday, February 18, 2012, Tarkio Presbyterian Church, Tarkio.
Inurnment: Home Cemetery, Tarkio

Davis Funeral Home, Tarkio, Mo