Eleanore Osterkamp

ELEANORE LOIS OSTERKAMP

Cedar Rapids

Eleanore Lois Osterkamp, formerly of Cedar Rapids, passed away at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021, at 6 a.m. She was 94. In order to ensure everyone's safety, a memorial service will be held via Zoom at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 6. A private burial will take place at a later time at Wilcox Cemetery in Jones County.

Eleanore was born Sept. 5, 1926, also at 6 a.m., in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Along with her sisters, she first attended school at Children's Square Orphanage and later began living at the Iowa School for the Deaf. This is where she first met Willard, who became her sweetheart at the age of 9. The couple were married on March 8, 1945, in Hiawatha, Kan. They were married 72 years.

Eleanore worked at Wilson's Meat Packing House for a time before their daughter Lora was born. She then took up cleaning different office locations in the Cedar Rapids area. She enjoyed the flexibility this allowed as her true joy came from being involved as much as she could be in the ministry as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. She took advantage of every opportunity there was to tell others of what she so intensely believed was in store for the future. She was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses on July 23, 1953, at Yankee Stadium in New York City.

Eleanore, her hats and her vibrant positivity will be dearly missed by her granddaughter, Helen Beard and her husband, Jason, of Muscatine; and two great-grandsons, Gage and Reise.

Eleanore was preceded in death by her parents, Clarence and Marie Bryant; her sisters, Maxine, Marjabelle and Dorelaine; her husband, Willard; and her daughter, Lora.