Jeannette Ross

Visitation will be Monday Noon to 8 p.m., with the family present from 6 to 8, at the Beatty Funeral Home, 408 N. Broadway, Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Funeral services will be held at Hillsboro Christian Church, Tuesday, 10:30 a.m., with Reverend Dave Callen officiating. Burial will be in Hillsboro cemetery. Family and friends are invited to a luncheon following the service at the Hillsboro Community Center. Milan and the kids request that contributions be made in memory of Jeannette to the Hillsboro Christian Church or the Hillsboro Library.

Jeannette was born June 6, 1926, to Charlie H. Vollmer and Mabel (Todd) Vollmer at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Following her graduation from New London High School, Jeannette worked as an executive secretary at John Deere in Ottumwa, and on July 31, 1949, married Milan Carrol Ross after he returned from World War II. They had five children: Steven Carrol Ross, Mesa, Arizona; James Milan Ross (Beth), Gladstone, Illinois; Thomas Gene Ross, Des Moines, Iowa; Debra Sue Augspurger (John), West Des Moines, Iowa; David Lee Ross (Jamie), Pella, Iowa. Along with the children, sister LaVon Darbyshire of New London, Iowa, thirteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren survive.

Jeannette and Milan farmed near Hillsboro most of their lives. Jeannette was active in Hillsboro Christian Church, Hillsboro Library Board, Alpha Club, Sweet Adelines, and other musical groups. She played organ at church and loved playing piano at home. She never had any difficulty distinguishing right from wrong and steadfastly expected the best in herself and those around her. She had tremendous integrity. Jeannette was an admired role model, demonstrating great love for her family and others. Cherished family memories include decorating Christmas cookies with her children and grandchildren as well as playing Euchre and Pinochle around the kitchen table. To get her mother-in-law’s (Mary Ross’s) home-made ketchup recipe, she followed Mary around the kitchen several years to catch everything that slipped into the recipe. The mother-in-law jokes did not apply to Jeannette. She loved her mother-in-law, and became especially close to Mary in her later years.

Jeannette taught her children that the pursuit of knowledge should be a priority in life, even to the extent of leaving a family meal to look up information in the encyclopedia or on the computer if one of her children asked a question she could not answer. She dressed chickens, drove tractors, proofread papers, sewed clothes, and tamed kittens.

She was preceded in death by her parents and brother Mervin Vollmer.

1 Corinthians 13 4-8, 13

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;

it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.