- Date Of Birth: April 8, 1925
- Date Of Death: April 23, 2022
- State: Iowa
Alice Pauline Ver Dught, age 97, was born April 8, 1925 to John J. and Anna (Gosselink) Buwalda who lived two miles northwest of Pella. When Alice was 15 months old and her sister Sara was three years old their mother died of a high fever. Grandmother Allie Buwalda took care of the family until John married again. Alice was four years old when she got a stepmother, Emma Hiemstra Vriezelaar, who had two children from a previous marriage. The blended family moved to Pella where Alice attended the public schools; graduating from Pella High School with the class of 1943. She taught school in two one room county schools; Warren School in Mahaska County and Valley Views near Otley. She met her future husband when she boarded at the home of his relatives while teaching at her first country school.
Alice was united in marriage with Arie Ver Dught at the home of the bride’s parents in Pella on June 14, 1945. Their first home was southwest of Prairie City, Iowa where Arie was farming.
They were blessed with four daughters: Donna Gayle, Beverly Kay, Arla Jean and Patty Jo. In 1956 the family moved to their own farm two miles south of Monroe, IA where they lived for 54 years.
After Alice was married she took education classes at Drake University in summer school and night classes, graduating in 1968 with a degree in Bachelor of Science of Education. She continued teaching at Reasnor School and then at Monroe Elementary, retiring in 1984. Organizations she belonged to were ISEA, NEA and the Pella Historical Society.
Arie and Alice moved from the farm to Vriendschap Village in Pella in 2008.
Those left to honor her memory include three daughters, Donna Hamm of Coralville, Iowa, Beverly Thompson of Des Moines, Iowa, Arla Doddridge of Liberty Township, Ohio, son-in-law Kendall Wessel of Texas, nephew Cordell (Linda) Van Reese and family of California and, eight nieces. Eight grandchildren who will miss their grandmother are Jennifer (Hayes) Redmond, Ryan (Nancy) Slebos, Chad Thompson, John Thompson, Tamara (Keith) Fenrich, Niccole (Troy) Brege, Kyle Wessel, Aaron (Valerie) Wessel and 15 great-grandchildren.
Alice was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Arie in 2014 after 69 years of marriage, daughter Patty Jo Wessel in 2008, granddaughter Jodi Thompson in 2021, son-in-law Herb Doddridge in 2011, son-in-law Donald Thompson in 2019, sister Sara (Frank) Plath, step-sister Joyce (Ray) Kirk, step-brother Lee (Mary Louise) Vriezelaar and half sister Ruth (Leon) Ray.
