- Date Of Birth: June 23, 1917
- Date Of Death: May 16, 2012
- State: Iowa
Wauneita Ruth McConnell, first ordained Woman in the Iowa United Methodist Conference, departed her earthly life in the Village at Indianola, Iowa on 16 May 2012 at the age of 94 after serving as a Methodist Minister for 53 years.
She was born in Bloomfield, Iowa to Ira Newman McConnell and Ruth Elizabeth Tarrence McConnell on the 23rd of June 1917. At the age of three her family moved to Centerville, Iowa where she grew up, and graduated from Centerville High School in 1936.
While in the 8th grade she was attending a Summer Institute on the campus of Iowa Wesleyan College, she committed herself to follow the call into ministry. She completed that challenge and served for many years. As a youth she was MYF President in the Ottumwa District MYF for 7 years, member of children and youth choirs, assisting where she could. After High School she was a part time Secretary and also worked in the Appanoose County Parish with four other ministers, all the time working toward her goal.
She was preceded in death by her parents, brother Ira Lowell McConnell and his wife Marjorie, sister Joan Tarrence Norton and her husband Clifford Norton, sister Erma Scritchfield and her husband Dale Scritchfield, sister Miriam and her husband Walter Horstman, and three Nephews and one great nephew.
She is survived by her brother James Robert McConnell and his wife Patricia Hedgecock McConnell of Universal City, Texas.
