Pauline E Lewman, age 101, of Carroll passed away on Monday, March 29, 2021 at St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 5:30 P.M. on Saturday, May 1, 2021 at the Dahn and Woodhouse Funeral Home in Carroll with Rev. Terry Plocher of the First United Methodist Church in Carroll officiating.
Visitation will be held at the Dahn and Woodhouse Funeral Home in Carroll from 4:30 – 5:30 P.M. on Saturday prior to the service.
Pauline designated 2 memorials for the natural environment which she deeply enjoyed and championed. Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (inhf.org) and The Nature Conservancy (nature.org/iowa). Memorials may also be left with the funeral home.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Dahn and Woodhouse Funeral Home in Carroll and online condolences may be left for the family at www.dahnandwoodhouse.com.
Pauline Lewman’s well-lived life ended on March 29, 2021 with her death at age 101 years and 10 months. She was born on the family farm south of Laurens, Iowa on May 25, 1919 to Ed and Mabel Whannel. As a child she learned from her father all the birds, flowers, trees and animals on their land. This was the beginning of her life-long interest in nature.
Pauline graduated from Laurens High School in 1936 and Indiana University in 1940 with a B.A. degree in elementary education. It was at college that she met a quiet young man Frank Lewman, and they were married in 1941 at her home in Laurens. The war years of WWII took them across the U.S., Pauline teaching wherever she could until Frank, a navigator in the Army Air Corps was shipped overseas.
The couple settled in Webster County, Iowa in 1948 to raise their growing family and build a full life. Pauline taught 2nd grade at Callender for 25 years officially retiring in 1979. But she never quit teaching. She was dedicated to encouraging curiosity in children and helping acquaint them with the natural world. She was a teacher who left a huge impact on students.
Pauline & Frank loved to travel. They were experienced campers and adventures took them from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the mountains of the west to the Everglades of Florida. They explored all 50 states and many countries abroad. Pauline was proud of her Scottish heritage. The stories she heard from her father as a child became a journey to Scotland to trace her ancestry. Pauline was a seasoned environmentalist deeply concerned about habitat loss, especially for birds. She loved to hike, canoe, bicycle, cross-country ski and generally be anywhere she could hear the birds.
Living family members include son Norman (Susan) Lewman of Sac City; daughter Mary Jean (Tom) Stork of Carroll; grandchildren Neil (Amy) Lewman of Jefferson, Shelley (Michael) Nevins of Waukesha, Wis; Rachel Stork of Chicago; 4 great grandchildren, 1 great-great grandchild, several nieces and a sister-in-law Martha Jane Lowe of Carthage, MO.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years Frank, her sister Eleanor, son Terry, daughter-in-law Margy, 2 granddaughters, and 1 great grandson.
