Stella V. Carlson

Stella, age 68, passed on Friday, December 25, 2015. Services will be at 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, December 30 at Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home, 8201 Hickman Road, Urbandale. Visitation will be 2 hours prior to the service. Interment will be at the Glendale Cemetery. Stella was born near Athens, Greece on August 13, 1947 to Lula (Matza) and Solomon Velelis. She immigrated to Detroit with her parents in 1951 to join other family and escape persecution. They moved to Miami in 1955 where she graduated from Miami High School. She also attended Miami Dade Community College for 2 years. She married Don S. Carlson on August 24, 1968 and they moved to Des Moines in 1971. She worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Des Moines for 22 years, retiring in 2003. She worked in nursing and later as billing clerk. She worked briefly in healthcare at Broadlawns and Iowa Methodist Medical Center. She also worked at Caldwell Raddatz Funeral Home as a receptionist. She is survived by her husband, Don; son, Steven of Urbandale and brother, Matt Velelis of Des Moines. She also has many cousins remaining in Florida and Greece. She was preceded in death by her parents. Stella was a devoted wife and mother. She treasured her Jewish heritage and shared stories of family deaths in the Holocaust and escaping with her parents to America. She was also proud of her Greek ancestry and enjoyed a trip back to Greece in the 1990s.