Elaine Jean Wicks

Elaine Jean Wicks, 90, of Perry passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at Perry Lutheran Homes, Eden Acres Campus in Perry. A funeral service for Elaine will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, April 14, 2025, at Perry Lutheran Homes, Eden Acres Campus – Great Room, located at 1300 28th Street, Perry, Iowa 50220. Visitation will take place one hour prior to the service, beginning at 12:00 p.m. Interment will follow at Violet Hill Cemetery in Perry. Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.caldwellparrish.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Christ Lutheran Church in Perry. 

Elaine Jean (Elwood) (Reed) Wicks was born into this life on November 25, 1934, in Lincoln Township, Iowa, to Homer and Neoma (Berhow) Elwood. She was the first child of eight. Elaine grew up in the Buffalo Center, IA area, where she attended school graduating in 1952. She was a longtime employee of Northwestern Bell for 32 ½ years.

Elaine was an avid bowler for many years. She loved her music, she played her guitar and organ for her family often and enjoyed traveling to see friends and family. Elaine loved going to Lou’s Diner for breakfast every morning, making friends like Chuck McCloud and Sherry Schatter, who became family to her. The Wild Rose Casino was her “Happy Place” at least 3 days a week. Elaine loved her church, Christ Lutheran in Perry. She was active in her church and made sure the coffee was made every Sunday. She also loved her coffee time with Perry lady friends, especially when they met at McDonalds. When it was the time of year that McRib was sold, she would take home one for lunch and one for supper. She really enjoyed them!

Elaine has been the matriarch of our family for many years. Family has always been very important to her, so much, she had put together a family generations book for many of us to enjoy for years to come.

On August 20, 1955, she was united in marriage to Norman Louis Reed, at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Buffalo Center, IA. They made their home in Des Moines, IA. They were Godparents to their nephew Craig Thorson, Elaine’s sister and brother-in-law, Pat and Arlin Thorson’s son. They spent a lot of time with Pat’s family, especially during the Holiday’s. Elaine loved spending time with family and always remembered her nieces and nephews with gifts. In July 1970, Elaine and Norman divorced. To his union, there were no children. December 14, 1974, Elaine married Harold Carlyle Wicks at the St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Perry, IA. Harold had two grown daughters when they married. They loved to travel to Grand Lakes, CO. every year, enjoying fishing, horseback riding, and just appreciating the great outdoors, until they couldn’t make the trip due to Harold’s health issues.

Elaine loved her pet dogs. She was a “dog mommy” all her married life. Elaine will be missed by her sister, Patricia Thorson, brother-in-law, Arlin Thorson, of Lake Mills, IA, and Brother Galen Elwood, sister-in-law, Cindy Elwood of Gibbon, MN, as well as many cousins, nieces, and nephews who loved her very much.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Homer and Neoma Elwood, her husband’s Norman Reed, and Harold Wicks, sister Janice Hixson (Rick Hixson), brothers Kieth Elwood (Therese Elwood and Peggy Elwood), Carroll Elwood (Marlys Elwood), Arlan Elwood (Mary Elwood) and Duane Elwood.