Helen McCuish Oltman
Helen McCuish Oltman, 105, of Kalona, formerly of Newton and
Riley, died peacefully April 28, 2009, at Pleasantview Home.
The oldest of three children, Helen Katherine McCuish was
born in 1903 in Leadville, Colo. Her father, a Scotsman from Nova Scotia, was a
Presbyterian minister, and her mother, of English ancestry, was a teacher in a
girls' school in Utah. Helen's father, the Rev. John B. McCuish, was pastor of
First Presbyterian Church in Newton from 1909 to 1915.
When Helen was 12, both her parents died, and her Aunt
Katherine from Boston came to raise the three McCuish children in Newton.
Helen met her husband, Ted, at Park College in Missouri, but
they delayed marriage plans until finishing their professional training. They
were married in 1927, after Helen's graduation from nursing school and Ted's
last year of medical school. In 1930, after the birth of their first daughter,
Peggy, they traveled to Amoy (now Xiamen), China, as medical missionaries for
the Reformed Churches of America.
In 1941, Helen and the three children returned to Newton,
where Ted joined them after being released from Japanese prisoner of war status
for 10 months.
After World War II, Helen and Ted returned to China to
continue medical work until Communist Chinese officials expelled them in 1950.
They set up a rural medical practice in Riley until 1989, when Helen moved to
Kalona.
Helen was an active member of Riley Presbyterian Church, the
Riley Chapter of the County Extension Home Education unit, a Neighborhood Club,
P.E.O., a Great Books Discussion Group, United Presbyterian Women and served as
office nurse and bookkeeper for her husband's medical practice. She also
organized volunteer activities for the Leonardville Nursing Home and helped
serve congregate meals in Riley.
Helen is survived by two daughters, Margaret (Peggy) Bailey
of Rochester, Minn., and Katherine and husband, Robert Cook, of rural
Riverside, Iowa; five grandchildren, Kathie Bailey of Minneapolis, Minn., Ellen
Warner and husband, Geoffrey, of Rochester, Minn., Douglas Cook and wife,
Teresa, of New Madison, Ohio, Lisa Scranton and husband, Alec, of Coralville,
Iowa, and Beatrice Boltz of Iowa City, Iowa; and six great-grandchildren, Sarah
Warner, Gregg, Audrey and Elizabeth Scranton, and Alexis and Lawson Cook.
Helen was preceded in death by her husband; two sons, Robert
and John; her brother and sister, John McCuish and Anna Margaret McCuish; and
one grandson, Mark T. Cook.
Helen was buried on July 17, 2009, at Greenwood Cemetery in
Newton, with the Rev. Jim Anderson leading a graveside memorial service.
Memorial contributions are designated for Heifer Project
International, the Sharon Center United Methodist Church or Iowa City Hospice.
