BOONE, Iowa—Alice Marie (Martin) Whittlesey, age 89, of Boone, died Sunday, May 29, 2022 at Boone County Hospital.
Alice was born in Boone, Iowa on April 1, 1933, the daughter of Charles and Etta (Elsberry) Martin. On December 20, 1953, she married James Whittlesey, also of Boone. They had four children. Over her lifetime, Alice worked a variety of jobs, from finish carpenter to meter-reader, but her priority was always family—attending every event her kids and grandkids participated in except when doing so would require her to be in two places at once and preparing meals that would make everyone happy. When her husband was alive and they were able, she loved travelling across the country and overseas. She sang with Sweet Adelines, was Worthy Matron at Eastern Star, and was very active in St Catherine’s Guild at Grace Episcopal Church. In her later years, she enjoyed flower gardening, volunteering, cooking (eventually assuming a supervisory role), and rooting for the Cyclones and Hawkeyes basketball and football teams.
Alice was preceded in death by her husband; parents; brothers Gerald, Raymond, Albert, Wallace and Richard Martin; sisters Maxine Duncan, Hazel Peterson and Diane Riffel; and son-in- law William Vinson. She is survived by two daughters Cynthia Vinson of Boone and Susan Kanefield (Ken) of Porto, Portugal; two sons Steven of Boone and Jeffrey (Lee Ann) of Iowa City; grandchildren Emily (Vinson) Kastiel-Utyro (Stephen) of Midlothian, VA, Clayton Vinson of Fort Collins, CO, Cooper Whittlesey of Chicago, IL, Maxwell Kanefield and Alyssa Kanefield of Minneapolis, MN; and a brother William (Gerrie) Martin of rural Boone.
The family would like to express their sincere gratitude to the staff at Boone County Hospital and Hospice for their compassionate care in her final days, and to Dr. Peterson and Dr. Merchant for helping her live a full life to 89.
Visitation will be held from 5:00 until 7:00 P.M. on Thursday, June 2, 2022 at Grace Episcopal Church in Boone. Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Friday, June 3, 2022 at the church. Burial will be in Linwood Park Cemetery in Boone.
In Alice’s memory, donations can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital www.stjude.org.
Online condolences may be left at www.schroedermemorialchapel.com.
Schroeder-Reimers Memorial Chapel at Sixth and Marshall Streets is in charge of arrangements.
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