Ella De Stigter

    Ella De Stigter, age 101 of Sioux Center, Iowa passed away, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, at Crown Pointe Estates in Sioux Center. 

     A celebration of life service will be 10:30 AM Monday, July 3, 2023, at First Christian Reformed Church in Sioux Center with Rev. Kurt Monroe, officiating.  Interment will follow in Memory Gardens Cemetery of Sioux Center.   

     Visitation will be Monday, July 3, 2023, from 9:30AM until the time of service at the church.  

The De Stigter family prefer memorials to Hope Haven Foundation. 

Ella was born on March 28, 1922, at her parents' home on a farm S.W. of Perkins, Iowa. She was the fourth child born to Albert Mulder and Cynthia Huitink: Ralph, Dorothy, Ella A (died in infancy of whooping cough), Ella: Henrietta, Thomas, Marie, Alvin, and Sylvia.     

Because of the Depression years, the Mulder family moved six times before purchasing a farm north of Hull. Ella attended many different country schools and graduated from the eighth grade. She was needed on the farm and helped by ironing for neighboring families. Her first employment at the age of eighteen was at the Hull Hospital, which she so enjoyed.

Ella met Leonard De Stigter from Sioux Center and they were married in her parent’s farm home on June 29, 1943. World War II had begun, and they left Iowa to find employment in Knoxville, Tennessee. Leonard worked on the atomic bomb in Oak Ridge and Ella worked at an A & P store as a clerk. Upon their return to Sioux Center, Leonard and three of his brothers founded De Stigter Brothers Construction Company in 1947 which provided for them for forty years before dissolving the company upon retirement in 1987.

Their marriage was blessed with six children: Thane, Sonja, Elaine, Emlyn, Philip, and Paul. They were married for seventy years before Leonard died in 2013 at the age of 91. Altogether 19 grandchildren and 48 great grandchildren joined their family.

Ella was a faithful member of First Christian Reformed Church all these years. She was a pastoral assistant and a charter member of Ruth’s Circle. In the community she was an active member of Hope Haven's Auxiliary, the Christian School Guild, the Association for Retarded Citizens, and assisted in a huge project of making pig in the blankets to sell for those needing help with Christian School tuition.

Ella had the gift of hospitality. Visiting family members often stayed at their home. She loved to host family celebrations and their home was an open door to her children's friends, college students, and Bible Study Groups. She admits her kitchen was her favorite spot in their home. She loved to cook and bake and was very good at it. For years she baked six loaves of bread a week for the family. She served wherever there was a need. Many enjoyed receiving meals she had assembled for them. Behind the scenes she sought out lonely and hurting individuals and formed trusting relationships with them. She was a confidential listener and an encourager to many.

Her family was her delight. Whenever possible she attended their activities. She embroidered dish sets for all nineteen of her grandchildren and used fabric from all her sewing years to make a unique bed quilt for each of her six children. Being a farm girl at heart, she couldn't resist listening to the daily crop reports on the radio. Few know how many hours she spent chopping weeds out of the corn and soybean fields of the farms they owned. They traveled quite often to visit relatives and took the family on several interesting vacations. Perhaps the most memorable one was a six-week trip to Alaska on the unpaved Alcan highway. They traveled overseas to Russia, Iceland, and Europe. The last was at the age of eighty. Leonard was much more of an adventurer than Ella, though. She was always more comfortable to be back home.

Ella acknowledged how God was the strength of her life. She often spoke about what a faithful God He was throughout every stage of her life. She stressed to her family the importance of being thankful and continually depended on Him at all times. Although not overly demonstrative, Ella exuded love to those God placed in her life. Her example is treasured!

Ella is survived by her children: Thane and  Ginny De Stigter of Loveland, CO, Sonja and Dick Sander of Castle Rock, CO, son-in-law, Larry Meyer of Oakdale, PA, Philip and  Bonnie  De Stigter of Sioux Center, and Paul and Susann De Stigter of Ramstein, Germany; 19 grandchildren; 48 great-grandchildren; her sister: Sylvia Humme of Orange City, IA; sisters-in-law,  Dorothy Mulder, Ontario, CA and Elaine De Stigter, Grand Rapids, MI and numerous nieces and nephews.

She is preceded by her husband Leonard; parents, Albert and Cynthia Mulder; and Albert’s second wife, Ella Brunsting; in-laws, Lane and Barbara De Stigter; daughters, Emlyn De Stigter and Elaine Meyer; daughter-in-law, JoAnn De Stigter; siblings: Ralph and Carrie Mulder, Ben and Dorothy De Leeuw, Ella A Mulder, Ben and Henrietta Koele, Thomas and Bernice Mulder, Vernon and Marie Van Ommeren, Alvin Mulder and Peter Humme and numerous members of the De Stigter family.