Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
June of 1964

Mrs. Marea SHEIL, who retired June 1, after twenty-five years of service as postmaster of the Maloy post office, was honored at an Open House held Sunday between the hours of 2:30 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jim BOPP, of Maloy.

Co-hostesses for the courtesy were the Mesdames Emeral WHEELEN, Ronald CONLEY, Howard JACKSON, Pat CARR, Frank CARR and Cleo LYNCH.

Refreshments of cake, mints, punch and coffe were served from a table laid with a white cloth and tastefully arranged with a bouquet of pink sweet-peas, flanked by pink lighted candles.

Included among the gifts with which Mrs. SHEIL was remembered were a gold swivel rocker presented by friends of the community and a pink rose corsage from Pat CARR.

Several pictures, which will serve to memorialize the occasion, were taken during the afternoon.

Guests in attendance were Mike SHEIL and Martin, Omaha, Neb.; Bill SHEIL, Plattsmouth, Neb.; Mr. and Mrs. Mike GROGAN, Chariton; Mr. and Mrs. Linn SHEIL and family, Mr. and Mrs. Maurice CARR, Mrs. Theresa SHAY and Mr. and Mrs. LaVerne WORTHINGTON, Linda, Steve and Loretta, Mount Ayr.

Also, Mr. and Mrs. Bob JUDY and Mr. and Mrs. J. T. O'CONNOR, Mary and Carmelita, Blockton; Mrs. Vera OLNEY, Des Moines; Mrs. Bernice NORRIS, Redding; Mrs. Kenneth BROWN and Lisa Ann, Grant City, Mo.; Martin and Billy MULLIN, Creston.

And, Mrs. Bob LYNCH, Joan and Joyce LYNCH, Mrs. Leland DUGAN, Mrs. Milford BENTLEY, Mrs. Rosa STANLEY, Mrs. Rena SWARTWOOD, Mrs. Grace WHEELEN, Mrs. Billy WYMAN, Mrs. Carl WYMAN, Rita SHAY, Mr. and Mrs. John D. WARIN, Ronald CONLEY, Cindy and Colleen, Pat CARR, Roger NOLAN and the Rev. M. J. CULHANE of Maloy.

Son James retired from the navy in 1967 after 24 years. The family continues to live in Coronado, California, close to the San Diego Naval Base.

While in the service Jim attended school to complete a college education. At the present time he is kept busy with volunteer community service. The spring of 1987 will find him arranging plans for the Sierra Club International Convention to be held in San Diego in June.

Jim married Josephine "Jill" HAITNETT of Idaho in 1969. Jill is a registered nurse with the Concordia school system.

Three children make up their family. Kathleen Marea has prepared herself as a teacher, Teresa Jane is a communication major at San Diego University and Thomas Kevin is a navy man training in surface warfare.

John SHEIL worked at the Maloy station a few years and then he and his wife Martha (from Maryville MO) and their daughters Colleen and Jane moved to Liberal, Kansas where John was employed by a petroleum company. He and Martha are now retired and living in Oklahoma City.

Bill SHEIL is with Solid Waste Disposal in Columbus, Nebraska. He has been there since being discharged from the navy.

Jerry SHEIL was in the first grade when schools started in the fall of 1935 and he graduated from there in 1947 along with Tom and John SHAY and Raymond HOUK. He had earned a degree in agriculture chemistry from Maryville [Northwestern Missouri State University] college before he went into navy officers school in 1952.

In 1958 he married Mary MARCEL. Six children have been born to them. Florence is an RN and just entered the Navy Nurse Corps as an ensign. Tim is 26-years-old and was accepted last fall to begin classes at the prestigious law school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Monica Maureen was a degree in public administration and has received a direct commission into the Navy Medical Service Corps.

Elizabeth, born in 1967, is a sophomore at Creighton. Michael, a year younger, is a high school senior and the youngest, James, is a sophomore. They both attend Creighton Prep School in Omaha where the family has made their home for thirty years while Jerry worked in the engineering department at AT&T (formerly Western Electric). He is presently [1987] working in their design department there.

Jerry enjoys weekends casting into the farm ponds around Maloy which he finds to be better fishing than the lakes of northern Iowa and Minnesota. The family has many good memories of friends, family and good times in Maloy and Ringgold County.

Michael SHEIL remembers leading the "stacker horse" all day - up and back - for 50-cents a day; cutting cockle burrs, shocking oats and later throwing hay bales in the summer around Maloy.

He also remembers the big hired hand dinners that accompanied the work. Summers spent swimming, playing and fishing on the Platte River constitute another favorite memory.

Mike attended NWMSU at Maryville after high school graduation (1950). He went into the service in 1954. While stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany, he met and married Paula Maria Helga SCHLEIFENBAUM in 1956. Helga had been trained in millinery design and purchasing and was employed by the leading women's hat manufacturer at this time.

Helga presently is the director of religious education at St. Gregory Barbarigo Catholic Church in Maryville [Mo] where the family has made their home since Mike retired from 20-plus years in the Air Force. Mike is manager of a self-service gas station and convenience store.

While in the service, Mike also took advantage of schooling at universities in the states, earning a B.A. in earth science and a M.A. in history.

Michael and Helga are the parents of eight children, two of which were born overseas.

Martin Craig was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, is married and is a lieutenant in the U.S. Army stationed in Wiesbaden. He has two children.

Christine Susanne is married and has one child. She and her family live in Omaha as does her sister Rebecca Anne.

Stephen Maurice served four years in the U.S. navy. He lives in Virginia with his wife and son.

  Robert Eugene is stationed at Ft. Lee, Virginia in the army.

Francis Anthony was born on Tachilkawa Air Station in Japan. He and younger brothers, Christopher Andrew and Arnold Felix, live at home where the two younger boys attend high school.

As the German custom, a couple must be married by the state and then if you wish you may be married in a church. Mike and Helga observed this custom by being married by the justice of peace at the Ratshaus (courthouse) and the following day at Helga's parish church.

Monica SHEIL is the only daughter in this family and is an RN. She and her husband live in Omaha. Monica has a young adult daughter Katie.

NOTES: Michael "Mike" SHEIL died at the age of 72 years February 26, 2005, Maryville, Missouri. He was buried at St. Patrick's Cemetery, Maryville, Missouri.

SOURCE: Maloy, Iowa Centennial History: 1887 - 1987 Pp. 186-87.

Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library

Transcription and Notes by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2011