Wilma Mae Finkbeiner

Wilma Mae Jackson-Finkbeiner, age 98, passed away Saturday, June 21, 2014 at Vadavilla AFC Home in Unionville. She was born March 18, 1916, early morning at the Jackson homestead in Cass City to William G. Jackson and Jennie Little-Jackson.

Wilma attended Hillside Rural School on Hurd's Corner Road. She graduated from the Cass City High School in 1933. She then received a Bachelor's Degree from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant and earned Graduate work from the University of Michigan toward counseling. She taught elementary grades for 35 years in Tuscola and Huron Counties. She directed 2 High School plays and taught 3 summer schools in the Owendale area.

On June 1, 1940 she married Lloyd Finkbeiner at the Methodist Parsonage in Gagetown. Attendants were her sister, Janetta Jackson and Henry Kelly, a close friend of the groom. They were married 55 years. To this union were born a son, William Frederic and a daughter, Patricia Ann (Donald) Holland. There are four grandsons, Matthew Finkbeiner, William Finkbeiner II, Douglas Holland and Michael Jon Holland. There are six great grandchildren, Brooke and Nicklas Holland, Draper Lloyd and Carson Holland, Edward and Nicholas Finkbeiner and a number of step great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Lloyd, her sister Janetta, her son William Fredric and infant sister Margaret Ann.

She and Lloyd owned and operated the Elmwood Corners General Store in 1944-1946. They bought a small farm 5 miles west of Cass City where they resided until 1994. Since 1975 she and Lloyd spent their winters in Kissimmee and Lakeland, Florida. While in Hickory Hills she produced and directed one and two act plays for the community. She played piano for numerous activities such as 2 weddings, three style shows, Twenty Years for Coffee Hour, five years playing for Vespers and Bible Study, and helped start the Hickory Hills Kitchen Band. She acted as Secretary-Treasurer for the Hickory Hill Chapter of the Florida Mobile Home Owners for 15 years.

She was a lifelong member of the Elmwood Missionary (quilting) Circle, Eastern Star in Caro, First Presbyterian Church in Cass City, life member of the Michigan Association of Retired School Personnel, life member of the Florida Mobile Home Owners, six years in the Tuscola Players and directed 2 of their productions and member of The Huron County Arts Council.

She enjoyed quilting, playing piano, reading and writing poetry (2 have been published), gardening, creating on the computer, playing card games, sending and receiving e-mail from friends, knitting and crocheting, and communing with nature. She had an obsession with crosswords and cryptograms.

Cremation has taken place. Interment will take place at Elkton Cemetery in Cass City.

A memorial visitation and service will be held Wednesday, June 25, 2014 at Trinity United Methodist Church in Sebewaing. Visiting will begin at the church at 9am until the time of service at 11:30am.

Memorial donations may be given to Vadavilla AFC Home or the charity of your choice.

Arrangements handled with loving care by Juengel & Mellendorf Funeral Home in Sebewaing.