Marie Roth Kirby

Marie Kirby peacefully passed away Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at Bishop Drumm Care Center in Johnston, Iowa, nine days before she would have celebrated her 94th birthday.

Marie Roth was born May 30, 1925 in Oelwein, Iowa, the eighth of 12 children born to Jacob and Anna Roth. She graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1943 and married Bob Kirby on May 3, 1947 in Sacred Heart Church.

They had five children, three born in Oelwein and two in Des Moines, where they moved in 1961 when Bob took a new job with the Chicago Great Western Railway.
The family settled on the southside and over the next 40 years, Marie worked for AID and Allied Insurance agencies and, during the legislative session, in the bill room of the state capitol.

She was a parishioner at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church for almost 60 years, though you could catch her at a noon weekday mass at St. Ambrose Cathedral from time to time. Later, after two of her sons were ordained priests in the Diocese of Des Moines, she’d be off to hear their homilies at Christ the King or St. Theresa, Elkhart or Neola, Council Bluffs or Carlisle, Winterset or Norwalk.

She was proud that her five children all graduated from St. Anthony’s School and Dowling Catholic High School.

She often hopped around the corner to Barrata’s or Tumea’s, made grocery trips to Hy-Vee, shopping treks to Younkers and, as a subscriber for more than a half-century, followed events near and far through the pages of the Des Moines Register and Tribune.
But Marie also ventured to enjoy the lights of Times Square, the jazz of New Orleans, the twang of Nashville, the blue of Lake Tahoe and the casinos of Monaco. She made pilgrimages to Medugorje, the Vatican, Dublin and her parents’ ancestral home in Russia.

Yet nowhere did she travel more often than to Oelwein to reminisce with her parents and siblings, celebrate the baptisms and weddings of dozens of nieces and nephews, and mourn those that went before. Marie was the last of the 12 Roth siblings.

She was also preceded in death by her parents and her husband Bob.

Marie is survived by her three sons, William (Lisa) Kirby, Fr. James Kirby and Fr. Daniel Kirby, and two daughters, Paula Campos and Kathy (Ted) Power, all from the greater Des Moines area. She is also survived by 11 grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. Her 11th great-grandchild is due in October.

Visitation will be at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, 15 Indianola Road, Des Moines from 4-7 p.m. on Monday, May 27, 2019 with a rosary recited at 7 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, May 28, 2019. Interment will be at Glendale Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can made to the Priests Pensions Fund, Diocese of Des Moines, 601 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50309.

Condolences may be expressed at www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com.

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