Mary L. Coleman

Mary L. Coleman, age 93, of Marshalltown, Iowa passed away peacefully under the care of Suncrest Hospice, with her family by her side on July 2, 2024, at the Iowa Veterans Home.

A funeral service is scheduled for Monday, July 8, 2024, at 11:00 A.M. at Mitchell Family Funeral Home. Pastor Paul Waterman will be officiating. Family and friends are invited to attend a visitation one hour prior at the funeral home. Mary will be laid to rest at Riverside Cemetery of Marshalltown. Memorials may be directed to the Emergency Food Box in Marshalltown. For more information or to send a condolence, please visit www.mitchellfh.com or call 641-844-1234. Mitchell Family Funeral Home of Marshalltown, Iowa is caring for Mary and her family.

Mary Lillian (Quillen) Coleman was born on October 6, 1930, in Fraser, Iowa. She was the daughter of James Quillen and Martha (Sifford) Quillen. Mary attended Pilot Mound High School and graduated with the class of 1950. On June 1, 1958, she married the love of her life, John Thomas Coleman in Boone, Iowa. From that day on, Mary and John were inseparable - you rarely saw one without the other. Early in their married life, she and John loved taking motorcycle trips with their friends. They lived in Boone until 1970, when they moved their family to Marshalltown.

Mary was a hardworking and dedicated wife and mother, putting her family’s needs above everything else. She was a true example of living her life by the Golden Rule, treating each person she met with kindness and a genuine hospitable nature. She was a faithful member of the Central Christian Church in Boone and then in Marshalltown, and the Christian Women’s Fellowship.

Mary worked in the meat market at the Boone SuperValu before she was married. After her children were older, she worked as a substitute cook in the Albion school lunch program and later worked for Pioneer Seed Corn in the summers, sorting corn. She also worked part-time for the Hawkeye Valley Area Agency on Aging at the Marshalltown Senior Center lunch program, where she retired in 1997.

After she and John retired, they could be spotted regularly in the Hy-Vee cafeteria, sharing coffee and jokes with their friends, maybe two to three times a day! Mary volunteered at the Emergency Food Box for many years, and she and John delivered meals with Meals on Wheels for over 15 years. In her free time, she enjoyed doing crosswords, word searches, and jigsaw puzzles to keep her mind active. She had a knack for gardening, and the pantry and freezer were always full of canned vegetables and jams from her garden, and homemade apple pies.

Mary was passionate about the importance of family, making sure the family got together to celebrate birthdays and holidays. It was clear that she especially enjoyed baking and cooking for family events; her family meals are legendary, and her recipes are family favorites that will carry on. Most importantly, she loved being a supportive grandma, spending time with her grandchildren and attending as many of their various activities as she could.

She is survived by her children; James (Tina) Coleman of Marshalltown, IA, and Joni (Steve) Nicoll of West Des Moines, IA, her grandchildren; Alison (Alex) Fitzgerald, Alex (Christen) Nicoll, McKenna Coleman and Kaelyn Coleman, her great-grandchild Adelaide Nicoll, and many nieces and nephews.

Mary is preceded in death by her parents James and Martha, her husband John Coleman, her sister Eva Allison, her brother Robert Quillen, her infant twin sisters, Alpha & Alice Quillen, and her baby brother James (Jimmy) Quillen.