Erma Hawkins

Erma Mae Fitz Randolph Hawkins, 95, passed away peacefully at her home surrounded by her family on February 21, 2007 from complications of pneumonia and congestive heart failure. Funeral Service will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Ankeny First United Methodist Church. Visitation will be 4-8 p.m. Friday at Hamilton’s near Highland Memory Gardens. Following Cremation, a graveside service will be at 1 p.m. Monday, February 26, 2007 at Greenwood Friends Cemetery near Ankeny, Iowa.
Erma was one of Ankeny’s early pioneers born on the family farm east of Ankeny on January 21, 1912, and attended country school a half mile from home. She grew up helping with the farm work, doing her school work by the light of the kerosene lamp, having no running water or inside plumbing, going to school either by walking or horse and wagon. These early days of hard work gave her an inner strength that showed in all she did throughout her life.
Her father died just after she graduated from Ankeny High School in 1930. Erma stayed at home for several years helping her younger brother farming and doing work for others to bring in extra funds during the Great Depression. By 1937, she was ready to start her own family, having met and been wooed by Joe Hawkins from Pittsburgh. While her two children were growing up, she was a stay-at-home Mom taking in washing and ironing to supplement the family finances. Only after her children were grown and her husband had retired did she work outside the home, at Younkers Department Store and later Look Magazine in Des Moines. She always worked hard to do the best job she could on whatever task was at hand.
Erma loved to crochet, learned to knit right-handed, even though she was left-handed, and made several beautiful Afghans and quilts. In her later years, she read many books and watched many soap operas. She never traveled very far from home, but she always enjoyed seeing new places. She looked for the good in people because she was a good person--hard working, family oriented, witty sense of humor and a loving disposition. She saw lots of changes in her 95 years on this earth, and she will be greatly missed.
Erma is preceded in death by her parents, Lewis and Alice (Stanfield) Fitz Randolph; husband, Charles Joseph Hawkins; brother, Lewis Randolph and sister, Nina Weston. She is survived by her children, Karen Hawkins and Craig Hawkins both of Ankeny; sisters, Dora Amundson of Idaho and Elizabeth Randolph of Ankeny; and several nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions may be made to the family for Ankeny First United Methodist Church or Iowa Hospice.

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