Opal Poock

OPAL POOCK

Monticello

Opal Poock, 92, died Saturday evening, April 23, 2016, at the Monticello Nursing and Rehabilitation Center following an extended illness. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, April 29, at the Monticello Baptist Church where friends may call after 9:30 a.m. Private family interment will be in the Hopkinton Cemetery. Pastor Gary Novak will officiate at the services. Goettsch Funeral Home has been entrusted with the services. Thoughts, memories and condolences may be left at www.goettschonline.com.

Surviving are four sons, Wayne (Linda) Bohlken and Gary (Linda) Bohlken, both of Monticello, Bernard (Debbie) Bohlken of East Moline, Ill., and Dennis (Deb) Bohlken of Anamosa; 10 grand-children; 15 great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Doris Husmann of Monticello and Iris Young of Marion, Ill.

She was preceded in death by her parents and husbands, Leonard Bohlken, Henry Durgin and Arnold Poock.

Opal Margaret Porter was born Dec. 28, 1923, at Deer Creek Village, Minn. She was the daughter of Harold and Nellie Kurth Porter. Opal attended Olin schools and graduated from Anamosa High School in 1942. She then taught in several rural schools. Opal married Leonard Bohlken on June 23, 1943, at Wayne Zion Lutheran Church. They were the parents of four sons. The couple farmed near Anamosa and Opal worked for the Dr. Aaron Randolph family.

Opal married Henry Durgin in April 1970. She worked as a dietician at John McDonald Hospital in Monticello and later at the senior home in Monticello. Henry died in June 1976. She started Opal's Ceramics and operated the business from her home. She married Arnold Poock on March 4, 1988, at First Presbyterian Church in Monticello. The couple continued the ceramics business until Arnold's death in 2006.

Opal had been a member of the Manchester and Marion Gospel Halls. She was currently a member of Monticello Baptist Church.