Martha May Phelps Magoon

 Martha May Phelps Magoon, 93, was born September 27, 1918 at Bayard, Iowa. She died December 22, 2011 at the Trinity Regional Medical Center, Fort Dodge.

Martha was the first child born to M. Ethel Flanigan and Thomas Wheat Phelps. She attended schools in Bayard and Rockwell City, and graduated from Bayard High School in 1936. After attending Teachers College, she taught rural schools in Guthrie and Greene Counties until her marriage – single ladies were preferred as teachers in those days. She married Lauren M. Magoon June 21, 1942 at her parents farm near Bayard. Soon after that, her husband was drafted into the Army Air Corps to serve in WWII and the couple lived in various places until he was sent to the South Pacific in 1943. She returned to Iowa in late 1943 to help with the harvest. After the death of their newborn son in April 1944, she joined the WAACs and began nursing school at Marshalltown, Iowa. She promptly left nursing school in December 1945, when her husband returned from the war and the nursing college told her she had to live in the dormitory and not with her husband. They lived in Ames during her husbands college years and then moved to the Fort Dodge/Moorland area. They became parents of 4 more children and were married 53 years until her husbands death in 1996. She was a member of Riverside United Methodist Church.

Survivors include daughters Mary Goodwin (David) of Fremont, Nebraska, Ruth Houston (Denny) of Fort Dodge, son, James of Clarinda, sister, Marie Buelt of Council Bluffs, seven grandsons: David, Doug, Brent, Bryce, Darin, David, Caleb and fourteen great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her infant son, Roger, son, Thomas, one great-granddaughter, husband and her parents.

Visitation will begin at 10 with a funeral service at 11 a.m.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at the Bruce-Graham Funeral Home with the Reverend Jim Barnett officiating. Memorials may be left to the Riverside United Methodist Church.

Fort Dodge Area Funeral & Cremation Service, Bruce Funeral Home