Individual Details

Mount Pleasant Daily News, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Thursday, December 10, 1925, Front Page, Col. 5: Mrs. Marion Becker Garretson. Marion Becker, he second daughter of Frank and Annie Scott Becker was born near Salem, Iowa, September 15, 1891. She grew to womanhood on the family farm. She became a member of the Congregational church while a young girl. She attended Whittier Academy and Iowa Wesleyan college. While a student at Wesleyan she affiliated with Pi Beta Phi fraternity [?]. Later she attended the Iowa State Teachers college at Cedar Falls, graduating from the Home Economic Department in 1916. She taught in the high schools at Hillsboro, New Sharon and Salem. On April 22, 1917, Marion and Herman H. [J.] Garretson were united in marriage at Albia [Monroe Co.] and went to Fort Snelling, where Mr. Garretson was in the officer's training camp. Later they moved to a farm near Salem and then to Mount Pleasant where Mr. Garretson was the athletic coach at the college for three years. Their present home has been at Indianola but because of ill Mrs. Garretson and the boys spent much of the past summer at the home of her parents. On the 22nd of November she was taken to Damon Hospital at Rochester, Minn. Following the clinic the doctors had hoped to relieve her by the removal of a tumor which had formed at the base of her brain and was the cause of her great suffering. However the operation was not performed and at two o'clock in the afternoon of December the first she passed away. Her husband and her father and mother were at her bedside and had no warning that the end was so near.

She leaves her husband and three little sons, Frank, Herman Jr. and Ronald, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Becker, a twin sister, Louise and one brother, Mr. Elija Becker. Funeral services were held at the Becker home in Jackson township12:25 Friday afternoon and at 2:30 services were held at the First M. E. church at Mt. Pleasant. Dr. H. G. Lelst was in charge of the services and was assisted by Dr. W. J. Todd and by Prof. H. O. Hendrickson who gave a beautiful tribute to Mrs. Garretson. A quartette of college girls, Florence Lelst, Editha DeGarmo, Mildred Allen and Doris Bergh sang two of her favorite hymns. Masses of flowers covered the casket and chancel expressing the sympathy of her many friends. The pallbearers were John McCoy of Cedar Rapids, Ed Hust of Fairfield, Victor Morrow of Salem and J. R. Weir, Will Campbell and Hendrickson of Mt. Pleasant. Interment was in the Friends cemetery at Salem, Iowa. [This is followed with a wonderful account of her Christian qualities].

Birth	15 Sep 1895	Salem, Henry Co., Iowa
Marriage	23 Apr 1917	Henry Co., Iowa - Herman John "Gary" Garretson
Death	1 Dec 1925
Burial		Salem South Cemetery, Salem, Henry Co., Iowa

Spouse	Herman John "Gary" Garretson (1890 - 1972)
Child	Frank Edmund Garretson (1918 - 2006)
Child	Herman John Garretson Jr. (1919 - 1998)
Child	Ronald Becker Garretson (1920 - 2007)