Pauline G. (Meinders) Arends

Pauline G. Arends, 101, of Belmond and formerly of Alexander, passed away on Sunday, March 10, 2019, at Rehabilitation Center of Belmond. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 AM on Friday, March 15, 2019 at Ewing Funeral Home, 111 Luick’s Lane South in Belmond. Burial will take place at the Alexander Cemetery. Visitation will be held Thursday, March 14, 2019 from 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM at Ewing Funeral Home in Belmond, and will continue one hour prior to services at the funeral home on Friday. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Alexander Library or Belmond Boy Scouts.

Pauline Grace Meinders was born on the Cobus Smith farm east of Belmond to Henry and Pauline (Stadtlander) Meinders on November 24, 1917. She was baptized on November 17, 1918 in the Immanuel Reformed Church by A.H. Woolken. At the age of five, she attended Braner Country School in Pleasant Township. In March, Pauline’s family moved five miles north and two and a half miles east to a farm northwest of Meservey. She completed Heidelberg Catechism in April of 1935. Pauline graduated from Meservery Consolidated School in May 1935. Follwing her father’s death in 1937, the family moved to Belmond. She worked at Peterson Café in Belmond then as a cook at the Steele Memorial Hospital. She also worked for Selma Griesy.

On March 15, 1947, Pauline was united in marriage to Orville Arends at the Alexander Reformed Parsonage by Pastor Roskamp. They started their life together on the Arends family farm west of Alexander. Pauline had frugally saved $800 from her $3.75 a week jobs and bought eight acres adjoining the Arends farm instead of going on a honeymoon.

Pauline was a member of Alexander Reformed Church. She portrayed Betsy Ross for Memorial Day programs at the Belmond School, was a VFW charter member in Belmond, life member of American Legion of Latimer, President of Alexander Cemetery Society, and helped organize the Kitchen Klatter Band. She was active in the Alexander Variety Shows. Pauline enjoyed trips to Las Vegas, Alexander Library coffees and loved playing cards. In her spare time, she made quilts and afghans. She loved taking lunch to the field in the big white van.

Orville and Pauline celebrated 50 years together on March 15, 1997.

Surviving are her two children Roy (Jeanie) Arends of Alexander and Marilyn Arends of West Des Moines; granddaughter Kelly (Joe) Pratt of Germany, grandsons Andrew Arends of Alexander and Jonathan Arends of Kingsville, Missouri; two great-grandsons Nicholas Pratt of Germany and Sebachtion Arends of Kingsville, Missouri; and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Orville in 1997, siblings Alfred Meinders, Clara Harken, Marvin Meinders, Henrietta Vierkant, and Verbena Friesleben, and many nieces and nephews.