Cole, Wilma Svoboda

WILMA SVOBODA COLE

Wilma L. Svoboda Cole, 95, of Muscatine, died Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, at Lutheran Homes. Funeral Service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, at the Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home. Vernon Cole Jr. will officiate. Casket bearers will be Dean Allen Cole, John Robert Van Dee, James Stecher, Scott Stecher, Jim Davis, M.J. Dunlap, Allen Cole, Tricia Bedenbender, Tina Green, Jeanna Dunlap, Cindy Bacon and Christy Cole. Burial will take place in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.

Memorials may be made to Kids First Program managed by Muscatine United Way.

Online condolences:.

Wilma was born on Jan. 23, 1917, in Amana, the daughter of Joseph and Tillie Yearsa Svoboda. She married Ralph Cole on Oct. 20, 1938, in Colesburg. He preceded her in death in 1986.

She enjoyed her grandchildren, gardening and taking care of her yard.

Those left to honor her memory include three sons, Mike Cole and wife Gale of Buffalo, Donald Cole and Dean Cole and wife Beth, all of Muscatine; five daughters, Wilma Van Dee of Union City, Pa., Betty Fowler, Delores Stecher and husband Jim, Norma Stelzner and husband Tim, and Sherry Morgan and husband Dennis, all of Muscatine; 19 grandchildren; 35 great-grandchildren; one great great-grandson; one brother, Sylvester Svoboda of Sun City, Ariz.; and one sister, Adelaide Cochran of Oxford.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; one son, Vernon Cole Sr. in 1988; one brother, Leon Svoboda; and one grandson, Jimmy Dean Cole.

Published in The Gazette Dec. 13, 2012.