Axmear, Mary Raechel

Mary Raechel Axmear, 95, died Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, at the Keokuk County Health Center, n Sigourney, following a brief illness. A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at the United Methodist Church in Keswick, with the Rev. John Tunnicliff officiating. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Powell Funeral Home in North English. Burial will be in the Sorden Cemetery, rural Webster.

A general memorial fund has been established.

Messages and tributes may be left at under obituaries.

Raechel was born on Aug. 14, 1917, near Keswick, Iowa, the daughter of Leo M. And Griselda Schultz Higgins. Her mother died when she was three years old. She was raised in the Sigourney and Keswick communities by Leo and her stepmother Cleo. She graduated from Keswick High School and then AIB in Des Moines. Raechel worked as a switchboard operator for the Keswick Phone Company and later for Modern Cooperative Telephone Company in South English, until her retirement in 1982.

Raechel married Edgar J. (Heavy) Axmear on Jan. 11, 1942, at her parents home near Keswick. They made their home in Keswick, where Edgar managed the Lumberyard before going into the banking business. Raechel and Edgar also operated E & R Insurance for many years. Edgar preceded her in death in December 1992.

Raechel moved to Sigourney in 2007. She was a 65 year member of the American Legion Auxiliary, the Sorden Cemetery Association and the Red Hats.

Published in The Gazette Sept. 6, 2012.