Obituary of Merwyn Shorey

A funeral service will be held Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at 10:30am at Turner Jenness Funeral Home in Milford. Burial will be at Lakeview Gardens Cemetery in Spirit Lake. Visitation will be on Tuesday, July 29th from 4:00-7:00 pm at Turner Jenness Funeral Home in Milford. Merwyn LeRoy Shorey, the son of Laura Mae (Moore) and Edwin Shorey, Jr., was born October 7, 1927 in Spirit Lake, Iowa. He graduated from the Arnolds Park High School. On December 18, 1954, Merwyn married Delores Shorey. The family farmed southeast of Spirit Lake from 1955 - 1960 and then farmed southeast of Terril until 1968. At that time, Merwyn purchased his farm west of Milford where he continued to farm. Merwyn and his brother, Charles (Chuck) were both accomplished bowlers, participating in many state tournaments. He also loved to ice fish, pheasant hunt and he later chaperoned Milford Boy Scouts on fishing trips to Canada on numerous occasions. He had a liking for Harley Davidson Bikes, classic cars (especially early Mustangs) and classic tractors. One of his favorite pastimes was hanging out at the Milford Elevator and talking farming with friends and fellow farmers. Merwyn reminisced about picking corn by hand with the old leather strap and hook on his arm, manually throwing ears of corn in the wagon and how tickled he was when they bought a Case tractor with a 2 row corn head. He was amazed at how much faster and easier the new technology was going to make farming. He would talk about how they would haul milk cans to town in an old car and how bad the smell was in the car for months, which seemed like forever, after a milk can tipped over. They carried buckets of water to the house from the well every day, disced fields with a team of horses, made hay off Cayler Prairie and walked two miles to the old #9 school each day, all year round. He explained how cold his metal plated leg brace got in the winter. Merwyn truly enjoyed and cherished living on his farm, especially the deer that came within feet of his house and the pheasant, fox, coon, turkeys and other wildlife in the old lake bed area between Merle Hartman's farm and his. He had a trusting, respectful kinship bond with Merle Hartman and his family. After retiring from farming in approximately 1996, he took a job driving the flag car for oversize loads for Heartland Escort Service, owned by John Ferguson of Spirit Lake. He retired from that job in 2011. Merwyn passed away July 26, 2014 at the Milford Nursing Center in Milford, Iowa at eighty-six years of age. He is survived by his two sons, Mark Shorey and Michael Shorey, both of Everly, Iowa; one daughter, Tana Michelle Shorey of Lake Park. Merwyn was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Charles.