Obituary of Freda Clayton

A Funeral service for Mrs. Freda Clayton of Spirit Lake will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2015 at the United Methodist Church in Spirit Lake at 2:00 PM. Burial will be at Memorial Gardens in Spirit Lake. A visitation with the family present will take place on Friday, April 24, 2015 from 6:00-8:00 PM at Turner Jenness Funeral Home in Spirit Lake, Iowa. Freda Maxine Cleeton Clayton was born August 6, 1924, in Downing, Missouri, Schuyler County, to Reverend William Cleeton and Ruby Morman Cleeton. Freda graduated from Seymour High School, Seymour, Iowa in 1942, participating in numerous activities but especially in music. Freda won first place in a solo at the state music contest. Freda attended Kirksville State Teacher College (now the Truman University of NE Missouri) for three years. She taught one year of Kindergarten in Keosauqua, Iowa. Freda met her future husband, Kenneth, a student at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery. Freda and Kenneth were married in the Kirksville Baptist Church by her father the Reverend William Cleeton, on June 16, 1945. This was the same day Ken received his doctorate degree. Freda and Ken spent their first year of marriage in Kirksville where Freda was a secretary to one of the staff doctors, and Ken was an intern in the college hospital. They moved to Spirit Lake, Iowa, on June 29, 1946, where Ken started his practice. To make their life complete, Freda delivered Kirk Lesley on July 21, 1949 and Chris Alan on April 9, 1954. Freda was a Sunday school teacher for 18 years, teaching the five year old children. She also participated in various church circles. Freda sang with the Spirit Lake Music Club for a number of years. Freda served as a pink lady for the Dickinson County Memorial Hospital for many years. While her sons were in Cub Scouts she was a den mother, later receiving both of her sons' Eagle Scout pins as a mother of an Eagle Scout. This was very special to her. Freda's love for the Lord, Jesus Christ, was the main fabric of her life. This gave her the strength she needed as she spent all of her adult life as the wife of a family physician. Freda enjoyed the wildlife of the area, especially the birds. All the beauty of God's world was so very special to her. She enjoyed sending cards, notes and flowers to people who were in need. Freda was preceded in death by her husband, Ken, her parents, her two brothers Victor and Russell and her two sisters Berneta and Bernice. She is survived by her sons, Kirk Lesley and wife Brenda of Wichita, Kansas, and Chris Alan and wife, Vicki of Mesa, Arizona. She is also survived by four grandchildren, T.J. and wife Katrina, Adam, Krystal and her husband Ryan Tucker and Brandon. Faith and Taylor are her great grandchildren. Freda had a full and wonderful life and we her family will always love her and treasure her. We are blessed to have had her as a mother and grandmother.