Henrietta Leona TerLouw was born February 27, 1916, to John F. and Maggie (Visser) Hiemstra, at her parents' home on Valley View Farm near Otley. Leona was the youngest of eleven children.

Leona had the typical chores of a farm girl. She would pick up corn cobs from the hog lot to burn in their woodstove.  Some of her other chores were to water and feed the chickens, grind corn and get the mail by riding their horse to the mail box.  She attended school at the Valley View country school and went to Lincoln School in Pella to take eighth grade exams.  When she was twelve she started attending Pella High School and graduated in 1933. Leona also attended Central College for a year where she enjoyed singing in the A Cappella choir. Leona taught in a one room country school called South Porterville for the 1935-1936 school year.

Growing up Leona went to Otley Reformed Church and made confession of faith there when she was a junior in high school.  After the family moved to their Sandridge farm they transferred membership to the Trinity Reformed Church. Leona was always active in the choir, ladies guild and other church activities.

On January 22, 1938, Leona was united in marriage to John E. TerLouw at her parents' home in Pella.  To this union they were blessed with three children: Nancy, Marilyn and Andrew.  Their first home was a farm south of Sully. Later they moved to her parents' former home near Otley and then to the Sandridge farm.

Leona was an accomplished baker and won over 150 ribbons from the Iowa State Fair for her bread and many other baked goods.

After she and John retired and moved to Pella, they enjoyed traveling in the United States, Canada, The Netherlands, Austria and Germany.  Some of Leona's other interests were reading, bowling and crocheting.

Leona was happy to have had perfect attendance at 86 Hiemstra family reunions!

She was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years John in 1998, granddaughter Julie in 2001, son-in-law Gary Wallace in 2006, her parents John F. and Maggie Visser Hiemstra and her three brothers and seven sisters and their spouses:  Tillie and Sam Poortinga, Emma and John Buwalda, Frank and Gertrude Hiemstra, Cornelia and Henry Vriezelaar, Martin and Henriette Hiemstra, John and Lillian Hiemstra, Mary and Leonard Gosselink, Nellie and Peter Westerkamp, Margaret and Elmer Vogelaar, Mabel and Cliff De Jong; her parents-in-law Andrew and Nellie Vos TerLouw; brothers and sisters-in-law:  Gerald and Nellie TerLouw, Marvin and Sophia Ann Swank, and Lester TerLouw.

Family

Nancy and Mark McCaune, Des Moines

Julie Uitermarkt (deceased 2001)

Vickie and Gary Welch

Anna and Tim Hamilton

Coralee Hamilton

Joseph Fisk

Mac Fisk

Laine Fisk

Kira Fisk

Marilyn and Gary (deceased 2006) Wallace, Pella

Laura Wallace and Bob Aringdale

Emily Klatt and Jared Atchison

Tyler Klatt

Jana and Troy Windt

Mitch Windt

Perry Windt

Robert Windt

Charlotte Windt

Andrew and Susan TerLouw, Kellogg

Nora and Philip Fetter

DeArgo Clopton

Nathaniel Clopton

Marquon Clopton

Malia Clopton

Preston Clopton

Itedra Clopton

Jennifer and Benny Melton

Joy and Darrel Anderson

Xavier Blackwell

Angela and Abex Dagnachew

Ezra Dagnachew

Noah Dagnachew

John and Shana TerLouw

Andrew TerLouw

Keith TerLouw

Leona is also survived by her sister-in-law Louise TerLouw, many nieces and nephews, and a host of friends.

Trinity Church
Pella IA

Audio Scriptures

New Hope Village
Carroll IA