Alice Bylsma

Alice Bylsma, 92, of Sioux Center, IA died Monday, March 17, 2014, at Pleasant Acres Care Center in Hull, Iowa. A visitation will be held on Wednesday from 4-8PM, with the family present from 5-7PM at the Memorial Funeral Home of Sioux Center. A prayer service for family and friends will be held on Thursday at 10:00AM at the First Christian Reformed Church of Sioux Center. Interment will follow the service in Memory Gardens Cemetery of Sioux Center. A memorial service will be held on Thursday at 11:00AM at the First Christian Reformed Church of Sioux Center with Reverend Mark Verbruggen, officiating. Alice Bylsma was born on June 10, 1921, to Abraham and Elizabeth (Hoogland) Beukelman in Sioux Center, Iowa. She was raised on a farm by Sioux Center, and she graduated from eighth grade in a one room country schoolhouse. As a young girl, Alice cleaned homes for families in the Sioux Center area, saving up $40.00 to buy a train ticket to California, to join her future husband, Percy Bylsma, who was attending commercial airline school. On April 9, 1944, Alice married Percy at Fort Bragg, NC, before he was deployed overseas during WWII. Upon his return in 1947, Percy and Alice farmed for a total of 38 years in the Sioux Center and Ireton areas. The couple retired to Sioux Center in 1985. Percy passed away on April 8, 2008 at the age of 89. In 2010, Alice moved to Pleasant Acres Care Center in Hull. Alice enjoyed canning, gardening, keeping the home, baking, cooking, crocheting and sewing. She also enjoyed church societies, making pig-in-the-blankets, and spent a number of years as a Calvinette Counselor. Alice will be remembered as a loving wife, mom, grandma, great-grandma, sister, and friend. Her faith and deep enduring love for the Lord was evident in all she did and in how she lived her life. Survivors include Linda and her husband, Tom Juhl of Orange City, Alvin and his wife, Brenda (Van Maanan) of Hull, Laura Hale of Sioux Center, and Ruth and her husband, Fred Brown of Orange City; 12 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; sister, Clara and her husband, Bert Den Herder of Luverne, Minnesota; and a sister-in-law, Berdena Bylsma of Hull. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by an infant son, Norman; brother, Abe and his wife, Gertie (Leusink), brother, Bill and his wife, Catherine (Leusink), sister, Lena and her husband, Robert Rens and sister, Alice at the age of six.