TOLEDO-Marguerite L. Blake, age 97, of Marshalltown and formerly of Toledo, passed away Monday, May 5, 2008 at Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center due to a short illness. A Funeral Service will be held Friday, May 9, 2008 at 10:30 AM at the First Presbyterian Church in Toledo. Interment will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo. Visitation will be Thursday, May 8, 2008 from 5 –7 PM at the Kruse-Phillips Funeral Home in Tama.
Marguerite was born on March 25, 1911, in Toledo, Iowa. She grew up in Toledo and graduated from Toledo High School in 1929.
On July 15, 1930, Marguerite was united in marriage to Durward Blake at the Presbyterian Parsonage in Marshalltown, Iowa. They celebrated over sixty years of marriage. They had two sons, Donald Duane and Gerald Keith. They lived all of their married life in Toledo and moved to make their home in Marshalltown one year prior to Durward's death in 1991. Since 1996, she has resided at the Villa Del Sol in Marshalltown.
Marguerite enjoyed dancing, playing cards, listening to music, doing jigsaw puzzles, playing board games, visiting with friends in the backyard swing, and traveling. Marguerite and Durward spent winters in southern Texas for several years.
She was a member of the Toledo American Legion Auxiliary for seventy-four years and of the First Presbyterian Church in Toledo. Marguerite was employed for twenty-four years as a telephone operator and for the Smith Abstract Company for fourteen years.
Marguerite was preceded in death by her husband, Durward; and mother, Elsie Mason.
She is survived by her two sons, Donald (Barbara) Blake of Marshalltown and Gerald (Patricia) Blake of Ankeny; five grandchildren, Thomas Blake of Marshalltown, David Blake (Kelly) of Clive, Linda Blake of West Des Moines, Todd Christensen (Jennifer) of Denver, Colorado, and Maria (Matthew) Trosper of Ankeny; six great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Lauralee Blake of Iowa City; and a cousin, Robert Walton of Toledo.
A memorial fund has been established.