Mabel Ruth Wilhelms Boe went to be with her Lord and Savior in Heaven on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, at the age of 91 years. She passed away surrounded by her family at Avera Holy Family Hospital in Estherville.
A memorial service for Mabel will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, June 12, at the Henry-Olson Funeral Chapel in Estherville. Interment will be at Palestine Lutheran Cemetery, Dolliver. Visitation will be held from 5-7 p.m., Friday, June 11, at the funeral chapel in Estherville.
Mabel was born in the Mitchell, South Dakota, area on March 6, 1929, to Fred and Vera Belle Wilhelms, one of seven children. She went to a one- room schoolhouse for eight years of her childhood school days. Her father lost his farm during The Great Depression, and they moved around a lot to wherever he could find work. They lived in South Dakota, Oregon, Montana, and Iowa. The family ended up in Estherville when Mabel was in high school.
She went to Estherville High School and worked as a telephone operator and a waitress at the Majestic Cafe to help support her family. While she was working at the cafe, she met Edward Boe, a local implement dealer, and they fell in love and shared their first kiss on the Swinging Bridge.
Mabel graduated from Estherville High School in the spring of 1947. She was very proud of her high school diploma. Mabel and Ed married on September 3, 1947. Following their marriage, the couple made their home in the Estherville area. Eventually they moved to a farm near Sherburn, MN.
The couple was blessed with four sons, Allen, Darrell, David, and James. She loved her boys and the farm and always had a big garden. In 1981, Ed and Mabel retired from farming, and they moved to Estherville.
Mabel was very creative and talented, but it took her retirement from the farm for that side of her to fully bloom. She created a teddy bear pattern and started sewing jointed, fake fur teddy bears and then created a dog pattern as well. She loved taking an old fur coat and transforming it into her work of art. Her bears and dogs are all over the country and she kept a record of where each one went and to whom.
She slowed down making animals after her beloved Ed died in 1999, and she started creating her own homemade cards. She had a card for every occasion and each one was printed and drawn by hand in her silver pencil and included an inspirational message.
She volunteered at Estherville Dinner Date for several years serving lunch to the “old people.” Mabel loved Jesus and shared her faith with people wherever she was. She loved talking to people and wanted to get to know everyone she came into contact with. Her positivity, humor, and love for life and those around her made her loved by anyone who got to know her.
She was an amazing grandma and always had something fun planned for the kids. We learned to bake cookies and husk sweetcorn and tolerate the Lawrence Welk TV show. Mabel had numerous health issues the last 20 years and every time, she knew God was in control and that He wasn’t done with her yet.
In 2018, she gave herself the nickname “Hurricane Mabel” after she survived another health issue, and she loved that name. In October 2017, she became a resident of Good Samaritan Society in Estherville where she welcomed every new resident personally and spread the love and hope of Jesus. She loved to play Uno with other residents, and it was a joke that she liked to try and cheat. She lived out the saying “Bloom wherever you are planted.” Mabel had a lot of visits to Avera Holy Family Hospital in Estherville over the years and the staff always remembered her and absolutely loved her. She always had a joke or a story or poem to share for every person she talked to. She was a member of Grandview Baptist Church.
Mabel is survived by her sons Allen (Barbara), Darrell (Gerry), David (Donna), and James, grandchildren Allen Jr., Andrew (Kathy), Rachel, Regina (Jason Christians), Kristen, and Jacob, great grandchildren Tyler, Justyce, Austin, Steven, Samantha, and Joseph, Zoe, and Lydia, one sister-in-law, Donna Wilhelms of Texas, and many nieces and nephews.
She is preceded in death by her husband Edward, her parents, two brothers, Arlen, and Ralph, and four sisters, Delores, Avis, Marian, and Alice.
Online condolences may be left for the family at www.henryolsonfuneral.com
