Ilene Magruder
Evelyn Ilene Magruder, “Ilene” to all who knew her, “Mom” to all who knew her well, “Grandma” to all who knew her better, was born on March 25, 1932, to Opal and Everett Judd in Milan Missouri. She died Monday, September 16, 2024, from complications resulting from a stroke. She was 92 years wise. She joined her husband Charles Magruder, her son Stephen, her granddaughter Elly, and her sister Angeline.
Her legacy was preserved by six sons and their adoring families: Charles; Chris and his wife Wanda; her late son, Stephen, and his dedicated son Michael (Anne); Brian and his husband Sean; Joel and his wife Christine. Not to mention numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Mom’s passion was crafting the perfect home. She was the spiritual center by taking six very different sons with unique strengths and challenges and built a strong family.
Mom began her home building journey with her mother and father during the sunset of The Great Depression. She was taught everything in a home had value, everything had purpose. Mom learned the recipe for the perfect home:1000% unconditional love, 100% faith and 100% imagination, plus 10% endurance for putting up with toilet seat issues (the struggle of living with 6 boys).
Mom mastered imagination and creativity, valuable tools to build a perfect home. With her sister Angeline, she made up games to play on the farm. A calf became a princess with a bow on its head.
In a one room schoolhouse, Mom taught young children the basic skills, like math, geography, and literature. During that period, mom fell in love with books, her second passion. Later in life she would marry her two passions together as a librarian – after all, what is a library but a home for books.
Mom loved being a mom. She loved playing games, reading to us, sewing Halloween costumes, brewing the perfect lemonade, making the perfect ice cream, and stitching together stuffed animals. She engineered May Day baskets, glued Christmas ornaments, baked choo-choo train birthday cakes — her creativity and imagination were put to great joy.
Mom loved the Iowa State Fair. As a blue-ribbon homemaker she enjoyed seeing the best of the best of the best. The best tomato, the most elaborate embroidery, the best of Iowa’s everything–all were inspiration pieces for quilting together the perfect home.
Goodbye mom, we love you.
Ilene Magruder passed away on Monday, September 16, 2024, at the Kavanagh House in Des Moines. Funeral services will be 10:00 AM on Thursday, September 19, 2024, at the First Presbyterian Church in Fort Dodge. Visitation will be from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Wednesday at the Gunderson Funeral Home and Cremation Services in Fort Dodge.