Margaret Gravel

MARGARET GRAVEL

Center Junction

Margaret Gravel, 87, died peacefully Saturday evening, Sept. 26, 2020, at the Monticello Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility surrounded by her family. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at Wayne Zion Lutheran Church, rural Monticello, with interment

in Wayne Zion Cemetery. Pastor Wade Reddy will officiate at the services. Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello. Masks must be worn and fitted properly over the nose and mouth at all times to enter the funeral home or the church. Social distancing needs to be practiced as well.

Surviving are five children, Robert (Lou Ann) Gravel, David (Stephanie) Gravel, Pamela (David) Leytem, Diane (Butch) Andrews and Val (Steve) Woodward; her daughter-in-law, Paula Gravel; 18 grandchildren; 35 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild and another on the way; her brother, Melvin (Janis) Dirks; and two sisters, Lois (Henry) Poppe and Joyce Osterkamp.

She was preceded in death by her parents; an infant sister, Marilyn; her husband, Tony, in 1994; a son, Daniel, in 2006; and a daughter-in-law, Paula.

Margaret Elfrieda Dirks was born May 18, 1933, in Langworthy, Iowa. She was the daughter of Rhinehart and Elsie Antons Dirks. Margaret graduated from Monticello community schools with the Class of 1951. She married Anthony Gravel on Nov. 17, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. The couple lived in Langworthy before moving to Center Junction, where they operated Center Junction Rock and Lime. Margaret also worked at the Center Junction Locker, Big Bill's and CPS, where she was the secretary. She retired in 2005.

Margaret was a lifelong member of Wayne Zion Lutheran Church, where she was baptized on June 1, 1933, and confirmed her faith on March 7, 1947.

Margaret loved to work in her yard and tend to her flowers and watch the birds that gathered.