Kirby, Jean Elizabeth Wiggins

Jean Elizabeth Wiggins Kirby, 96, passed away Jan. 17, 2012, at Mercy Hospice in Iowa City. Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, at Henderson-Barker Funeral Home in West Liberty, where visitation will be Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. Burial will be in Oak Ridge Cemetery, West Liberty.

Jean Elizabeth Wiggins Kirby was born Dec. 22, 1915, on a farm northwest of West Liberty, Iowa to Earl and Edith (Tompkins) Wiggins. She was the oldest of four girls: Virginia, Pat and Phyllis.

She is survived by two sons, Jack (Kathy), currently living in Wichita, Kan., and Jim (Pat), living in Bella Vista, Ark.; three grandchildren, Jeff and Gail Kirby and Scott Kirby, Wichita, Kan., and Julie and Dustin Twietmeyer of Springtown, Texas; six great-grandchildren, Connor, Reesa, Caylee, Jackey, Charley and Joey; and one sister, Phyllis (George) Porter, living in Melbourne, Fla.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, John; and two sisters, Virginia Hanson and Pat Heath.

She and John moved to Cedar Rapids in 1960; while there she worked for May's Drug for 20 years as a bookkeeper. She also had belonged to various organizations while in West Liberty and Cedar Rapids: West Liberty Methodist Church, Asbury Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids, Air Force Mothers Club, Chada Pautz Fellowship and 50-year member of TTT Society. Jean returned to West Liberty after 41 years in Cedar Rapids, moving into Heath Manor Retirement Center in 2001.

Online condolences may be made to the family at .

Memorials may be made to Mercy Hospice.

Published Jan. 19, 2012, in The Gazette