Lillian Arlene (Powell) Stockton

STOCKTON, POWELL, FROINES

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 1/26/2021 at 14:07:40

Exercising her abilities
by Suzanne Barnes, The Gazette

Anamosa - Lillian Stockton has retired several times, but her inner teacher never has.

She still uses her classroom skills to engage the dozen or so residents of Anamosa Care Center in a round of exercise every Tuesday and Thursday morning.

And for those who don't want to leave their rooms, Stockton pops in for a personal visit. It's hard to say you're too old to exercise when the person leading them in 86 years old.

For 3 1/2 years, Stockton's late husband, Otis, was a resident of the care center that's located by the junction of Highway 151 and Third Street. She'd visit him every day. "And I helped with all the activities" said Stockton, who has cooked for the Anamosa Senior Center, as well as cared for the elderly in their homes.

A month after her husband died two years ago, Stockton was asked if she wanted to lead exercises at the care center, "because no one ese wanted to do exercises."

Stockton had previous experience leading exercises decades ago when she was a school teacher in a country schoolhouse. "Of course, this is a different sort of exercises because no one can stand. So we have to do everything sitting down."

Care center residents follow Stockton as she moves her arms in varying patterns or moves her feet. She tosses an inflated beach ball gently at one after another. She brings bean bags, scarves and, once a month, something she calls a parachute. The latter is a large piece of cloth with hand-holds along the edges. The goal is to keep a ball in the center. "We use everything we can find to keep them excited," she said. Sometimes that includes singing "action" songs like "Row Row Row Your Boat" while exercising. Stockton doesn't confine her own exercising to what she leads at the care center. She's been walking approximately a mile a day at the Lawrence Community Center for four years.

That she lives in Anamosa is due to her son, Richard, asking his parents to relocate there from their retirement home in Waukon. The Stocktons moved into their home about a block from his about two decades ago. Before that, they had lived on a farm for 25 years, where Stockton's teaching jobs took them.

Stockton started her own education in a county school across from the Luana farm where she grew up. When she was finished with eighth grade she was not permitted to live in town and attend high school. So, Stockton repeated eighth grade. Then she helped the country school teacher as she could, and read books for boo reports the teacher would check.

When she was 17 and caring for a neighbor with a broken hip, she heard that school buses were going to start running in Allamakee County. She bargained with her father and was allowed to attend high school.

She taught at county schools in Allamakee County. When she married Otis, she would sub for other teachers so she could be with her three children when they were young.

Stockton earned her teaching degree from Upper Iowa in 1970, when she was 52 years old. Then she taught at Maranatha Bible College in Watertown, Wis., and, later, at Calvary Baptist Academy in Normal, Ill., where she also introduced the Dewey Decimal Classification System into the library.

Otis was always hired at the same time his wife was. "We were always hired as a couple." Stockton said.

Profile:
Lillian Stockton
Anamosa
Age 86
Daughter: Gloria Froines of Oakland ,Calif.; sons Richard of Anamosa and Daniel of Memphis, Tenn.; six grandchildren; four great-grandchildren
Occupation: part-time exercise leader at Anamosa Care Center
Hometown: Luana (Clayton county, Iowa)
Education: Bachelor's degree from Upper Iowa University, Fayette (Fayette county, Iowa)
Interests: Reading, pianist for Monticello Baptist Church; quilting and embroidering when she feels like it.

~Cedar Rapids Gazette, Thursday, September 2, 2004 (article & picture)

Note:
Some of the Allamakee county schools that Lillian taught:
Hanson #4, Makee twp.
Cherry Valley (Franklin #7), Franklin twp.
Waukon Elementary school

Additional information about Lillian is in her obituary, link below the photo. She died in 2016.

Lillian A. (Powell) Stockton obituary
 

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