Neva Plum, 89
Neva Plum, 89, of the Iowa Veterans Home, passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday, April 20, at the IVH, with family at her side. Her daughters and granddaughters sang her to heaven with songs she loved as she departed this life.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, April 27, at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home West Marshall Chapel in State Center with Rev. Fred Rhodes officiating. She will be laid to rest in the Hazelwood Cemetery at Grinnell. Visitation will be held from 1:00 p.m. until the service time on Thursday. For condolences, please visit www.mitchellfh.com. Ph. 641-483-2900.
Born on December 17, 1927, in Grinnell, she was the youngest of eight children born to Thomas Albert and Effie (DeVault) Corrick. Her dad died when Neva was just two years old.They ventured to California when she was near the 9th grade. Because it was just her and her mom, she began working in a munitions plant and even labeled cigarette packs for the state at a young age to earn money.
On November 9, 1946, she was united in marriage to William Walter Plum in Marshalltown. They made their home in many communities including State Center (in a basement home), DeKalb, IL, and Marshalltown (building a home on 21st St.). She worked for Marshalltown Manufacturing and was a founding member of the Union. Neva was a fighter for protection of her co-workers and what was right. She would be the first to admit she was a true American Patriot and treasured our veterans and what they stood for. Her own husband was critically injured hours before the surrender of Germany in WWII, and she devoted her life to his care.
In 1965, the couple moved to State Center when they purchased the Dairy Bar, soon renaming it “Trojan Drive-Inn.” The Plum family operated it until 1972 when they moved to Alamogordo, NM. With the love of seeing the country as well as the world, they purchased an RV and travelled border to border each year until settling in Albuquerque near their son Douglas Plum for the last five years of his life. After her husband’s death in 1985, she became a governess for the Atler family in Albuquerque, loving their children as her own. The final years of her New Mexico residency was spent with her daughter Kathy in a mountain cabin near Cloudcroft, before moving back to Iowa.
Mrs. Plum was respected for her desire to help out the underdog. She stood up for what was right and challenged people to give the best of themselves. She was a staunch democrat who met Biden in Grinnell and McGovern years ago at a rally in Des Moines. Her most important relationship she shared was with Jesus Christ in her faith.
Left to cherish her memory is her children: Katheleen Ann Plum of Newton, Deborah Ann (“Butch”) Horn of Melbourne, Douglas William Plum of Newton and Tamara Ann Plum-Uptain of Newton as well as six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
In death, Neva rejoined her beloved husband, her parents, one sister and six brothers.