| Mavis E. Differding |
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White Funeral Home JESUP - Mavis Ellen Differding, 92, of Jesup, IA, died April 5, 2025 , in Arcadia, Florida. She was born August 2, 1932, in Howard County, Iowa, to Joseph Framer and Florence Gertrude (Long) Cordes. Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. – Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at St. Athanasius Catholic Church, Jesup, IA, with burial in the church cemetery. Visitation will be an hour before services at the church. Mavis graduated from St. Mary’s in Waterloo, Iowa in 1950. After graduation, she worked for the telephone company as a telephone operator. She married Claude Risse and enjoyed being a farm wife cooking, raising chickens, gardening and tending to her family. Of this union, they had three children: Patricia, William, and Diane. She worked several years for her brother as a receptionist/bookkeeper at Jim Cordes Ford in Waterloo, Iowa. After Claude’s death in 1968, she married Lynn Differding. Mavis and Lynn moved to Clear Lake, Iowa and owned Differding Ford Dealership. Later they owned The Cave in Clear Lake. They later divorced. She married Marvin Wilhite in Clear Lake, Iowa. They later divorced. She worked at the Clear Lake VFW for many years. She quit her job there and devoted three years to caring for her ailing parents. After her health began to be a challenge, she lived with her daughters in Swisher, Iowa. In her retired years, she enjoyed playing cards, delivering Meals on Wheels, sewing into the wee hours of the morning making quilts, dog & cat beds to donate to animal shelters, and blankets for family and friends. She loved baking -- making cakes, bars, cookies and her favorite was her award-winning banana bread. She rarely went to doctor appointments without many loaves of banana bread for the staff. In her world, Food equals Love. In retirement, she enjoyed being a Snowbird with Marvin in Arizona and the past 10 years with her daughters in Florida. She was active in the Clear Lake VFM Auxiliary, Swisher American Legion Auxiliary, the Rebekah’s and the Moose in Arizona. Mavis was blessed with many “bonus years” here on earth. She was close to death in 2004, again in 2014 and lastly in 2022. In 2014, she battled tonsil cancer and was considered a “miracle” by her healthcare team at UIHC. She proudly told people that she “flunked hospice”. In fall of 2022, it was determined that her heart was failing. But that didn’t stop her from being a “tough cookie”. She was on hospice for 2 ½ years and continued to enjoy her family, her hospice staff, and friends until God called her home. Mavis is survived by her daughters and son-in-law, Patricia Differding and Diane & Don Lorenzen, daughter-in-law Lois Differding, her brother John Cordes, her niece Theresa Wilson, nephews Tony Cordes and Joseph Cordes, and a large number of friends that she considered family. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husbands Claude Risse, Lynn Differding, and Marvin Wilhite; her son William Differding, sister Goldie Thomas and her husband Albert, brother Jim Cordes and his wife Jackie, infant brother Francis Joseph, nieces Mary Ellen Thomas, Cathy Cordes, and Susan Miller, Grand-nephew Jedidiah Wilson, also her many fur babies. Special thanks to the Hospice Staff at Tidewell Hospice (in Florida) and Cedar Valley Hospice (in Iowa). She loved and appreciated all of them. |
