Alda Hoekstra

Alda Mae Hoekstra was born on April 28, 1919 to Gerrit and Alice (Hoksbergen) Van Heukelom in Leighton, Iowa. Alda passed away at the Carriage Hills Nursing Home of Cherokee on April 7, 2019, at the age of 99 years.

Alda grew up in the Leighton area and attended Centennial Country Grade School. She taught for three years in a country school and at Pella Christian. Alda was united in marriage with Cornelius Hoekstra on May 26, 1944 at the Third Reformed Church in Pella. To this union were born Howard and Connie. They also had three foster sons: Douglas, Dennis, and Larry Tilma.

Alda faithfully served alongside her husband in many churches in Worthington, Minnesota; Oak Harbor, Washington; Byron Center, Michigan; Fulton, Illinois, and Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. The couple lived in Pella, Iowa, until Cornelius’s passing in 1993. In 2001, Alda moved to Cherokee, Iowa, where she could be closer to her daughter.

Alda enjoyed counted cross-stitching and blessed her friends, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with many pieces of her handiwork. The greatest legacy she has left to her family is  her faith.

Those left to cherish her memory are her son, Rev. Howard and Starr Hoekstra of Lemont, Illinois; her daughter, Connie and Bruce Ruble of Cherokee, Iowa; her foster son, Dennis and Laurie Tilma of Byron Center, Michigan; her grandchildren: Jennie, Connie, and David Hoekstra and April and Amy Ruble; and 14  great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild.

Alda was preceded in death by her husband Cornelius, her parents Gerrit and Alice Van Heukelom, her brother Louis Van Heukelom, three sisters: Nellie Kolenbrander, Jeanette Van Zante, Elizabeth Van Zante, and Margery Van Hemert.

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