Earl Phelps

Earl Lee Phelps, age 75, of rural Coon Rapids, Iowa, died Sunday, February 28, 2010, at Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Funeral Services will be held at 10:30 A.M., Thursday, March 4, 2010, at the First United Methodist Church in Coon Rapids. Officiating will be the Reverend Lynn Gunderson. Organist will be Lulu Garnes. Honorary Pallbearers will be Jack Schauf, James Schauf, Bob Schauf, Craig Sumner, Michael Peatrowsky, Edward Kinnick, Norman Crees, Eugene Phelps, Ralph Phelps, Raymond Cadwallader, Steve Eischeid, Charles Headlee, and Robert Nymand Jr. Burial will be at the Highland Township Cemetery near Bayard at a later date. Visitation will begin at 9 A.M. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church until the time of the funeral service. The Sharp Funeral Home of Carroll is in charge of funeral arrangements. Mr. Phelps was born on August 26, 1934, at Carroll, Iowa, the son of Henry Earl and Agnes Christine (Schnoor) Phelps. He spent his entire lifetime at the family farm home four miles southwest of Bayard and graduated from Bayard High School in 1953. On August 24, 1958, he was married to JoAnn Schauf at the Bayard United Methodist Church. Mr. Phelps was an accomplished blacksmith. He had the opportunity to work at welding, metal fabrication, his radiator repair business, bridge work, gas line welding, farming, truck driving, mechanic, and was the welder for Amoco and Grace Drilling Company at the oil well located near Halbur and the suspended bridge at River Side Park. He enjoyed his motorcycles, building his portable welding truck and his wife’s Chopper, working on their 1970 Shelby Cobra GT 500, fishing, canoeing, teaching his grandson Jacob the blacksmith trade, and was fascinated by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and sunken ships like the Bertrand at DeSoto Bend. Earl Lee was an EMT-B with the Bayard Ambulance for many years, and was a Highland Township Trustee. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church at Coon Rapids, Local 106 Carpenter Union, and the Iowa, Nebraska, and National Blacksmith and Welders Associations. Earl Lee loved his family and enjoyed telling everyone interested in the history of Coon Rapids and the White Rock area. Survivors include his wife, JoAnn Phelps of Coon Rapids; a son, Orrin Don Phelps and special friend Pam Holcomb of Coon Rapids; a daughter, Jody Ann Evans and husband David of Altoona; a grandson, Jacob Evans of Altoona; sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, Charlotte Ault of Bayard, Jack and Mae Schauf of Ocala, Florida, James and Shannon Schauf of Overland Park, Kansas, and Bob and Rosanne Schauf of Rio Grande, New Mexico; and cousins, Laura Boots Chambers of Bayard, Don Brideson and wife Claudia of Jacksonville, Florida, Ronald Brideson of Dallas Center, Robert Nymand and wife Pat of Brayton, Garfield Sumner and wife M.J. of Chipita Park, Colo., Janet Rosenbladt of Owatonna, Minn., and Zoe Siedenkranz and husband Mike of Des Moines. He was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Michael Dean Phelps, in infancy; and a special family member, Beth Knudson Booth.

Earl Phelps

August 26, 1934 - February 28, 2010