Funeral services for Matilda A. DeGroot, 98, of Madison will be at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, November 17, 2018 at Trinty United Methodist Church, Madison: Reverend Donna Goltry will officiate. Burial will be in Crown Hill Cemetery. Visitation will be 1 hour prior to the service.
Resseguie Funeral Home, is in charge of arrangements. She died on Wednesday, November 14, at Countryside Home in Madison, where she lived for the last two years. Matilda Ann DeGroot was born to Edward and Agnes (Kucera) Pospisil on the family farm twelve miles west of Madison on March 14, 1920, she graduated from Madison High School in 1937.
She became a member of the Madison Methodist Church soon after graduation. She was united in marriage to Eugene De Groot in the Methodist parsonage on July 19, 1941. They farmed southwest of Madison until 1950 and then they moved to their present farm five miles north of Madison.
A devastation tornado on May 30, 1954, destroyed their home along with others in its path from south of Newman Grove to northeast of Madison. Four children and two adults lost their lives in the storm. Friends and neighbors helped clear the debris from the fields and buildings.
They used a small insurance policy to build a two-bedroom home and a small machine shop where they lived until the house was done later that summer. Matilda often worked in the field and helped raise Hereford cattle driving a tractor pulling a tank wagon Gene made to water them. Later when they began planting 40 acres of apple trees on the farm in 1969, she watered the trees to get them started.
Gene modified that tank into a sprayer. With the help of friends and neighbors Gene did the picking with the aid of a hydraulic high lift he made. Tillie was the sales lady.
They enjoyed visiting with their customers and made three cookbooks of collected recipes. Their two daughters Carol and Marilyn and their families grew up helping on Gene and Til’s Apple Farm. Unfortunately, Gene’s ill health forced them to give up the operation retiring in 1998.
Gene lived in Countryside Home for four years while Tillie visited daily. He passed away on their wedding anniversary July 19, 2004. During their 63 years of marriage they enjoyed spending time with their daughters Carol and Marilyn and their families.
Carol and her husband Ray R. Robertson have two daughters Kristi Hegemann and her husband Tony and their twin sons Lane and Ty and their daughter Sheri who is married Matt Sheriff and have a daughter Jasi. Their daughter Marilyn is married to George H. Moyer, Jr. and have two sons, Michael C. and Eric H. Moyer. Michael and Tricia Moyer have a son Pierson and Eric and Heidi Moyer have a son Vail and a daughter Magnolia.
Tillie lived independently on the farm twelve years after Gene’s death until she entered Countryside Home at age 96. Her two daughters and their families survive her. Memorials may be directed to the Trinity United Methodist Church in Madison.
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