Mary E. Dewitt

Mary E. DeWitt, 102, of Indianola (formerly of Winterset) died January 3, 2019 at The Village in Indianola. A visitation with family present will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Saturday, January 5, at Ochiltree Funeral Service in Winterset. A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, January 6 in the Heritage Room at The Village in Indianola. A private burial will be in the Winterset Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to The Good Shepherd Fund at The Village and/or Special Olympics Iowa. Online condolences may be left for the family at ochiltree.com. Mary Elizabeth Smith was born on March 27, 1916 in rural Marshall County, Iowa to J.O. and Mabel Ellen (Mann) Smith. She graduated from Whitten High School in 1933 and attended Junior College in Marshalltown, and then Business College. She met Richard S. DeWitt while they were both working at the Boys Training School in Eldora, IA and they were married on December 26, 1942 in San Antonio where Richard was in flight training in the Army Air Corp. While her husband served in WWII, Mary first lived and worked in St. Paul, MN, and then in Marshalltown. Richard and Mary settled in Des Moines after the war. Then in 1953, they moved to the DeWitt farm in rural Madison County. Richard was employed by Vawter and Walter Construction in WDM throughout his career, while they maintained the farm. They moved to The Village in 1991 when the facility opened. She was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church in Winterset, Presbyterian Women, and Church Women United at the local, state and national level. She was a member of the Winterset Current Topic Club, PEO Chapter AG, American Legion Auxiliary, Metanoia, the Des Moines Women’s Club, and in Indianola, the Shakespeare Club. Mary was a great correspondent – she wrote letters to everyone she knew, or barely knew. When her friends passed on, she started writing to their children. She was an expert typist and was an early adopter of the computer, scanning photos and sending emails until just a few months ago. Other less-tech-savvy friends turned to her for their internet searches! Mary was a model for life-long-learning. She was a reader of fiction, nonfiction, newspapers, magazines, pretty much anything in print. She was full of curiosity. She learned – and remembered – people’s names and their stories. She loved to tell her own stories, and liked to make people laugh. Though her vision and strength were diminished in the past year, she was lucky enough to learn and laugh to her last day. Surviving are son, Donald DeWitt of Winterset; daughter, Jane DeWitt of Iowa City (Russ Lenth); grandchildren Kathryn Lenth (Kristen) and Brian Lenth (Lydia Crowe); and great-grandson, Wesley Lenth. She was preceded in death by Richard, her husband of 64 years; an infant son, Steven Richard; and her sister, Ruth Smith Miller.