Eleanore 'Cookie' Elaine Collins
November 17, 1929 - August 14, 2009

ELEANORE COLLINS MESA, Arizona -- Eleanore Elaine Cookie Collins, 79, passed away Friday, August 14, 2009, at her son's home in Mesa, Arizona. Cookie was a life long resident of eastern Iowa having lived in Muscatine, Cedar Rapids, Marion, and the rural Solon-Shueyville, Iowa area. Funeral service will be 2:00 pm on Friday, August 21, 2009, at the Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home. Reverend Bruce Martin will officiate. Terry Clang will provide acoustic guitar for the service. Serving as casket bearers will be Kory Collins, Cameron Collins, Chase Oldfield, Terry Clang, Steve Brade, and Jeff Williamson. Interment will be at the Greenwood Cemetery in Muscatine, Iowa. Visitation will be from noon to 2:00 pm Friday, August 21, 2009, at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorials be made to Unity Hospice. Cookie was born on November 17, 1929, in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of J. H. Edward and Leona L. Schultz Elfers, and the granddaughter of C. J. Henry and Anna Reimenschnieder Elfers and Andrew J. and Nellie M. Hagerman Schultz. She married David H. Collins on October 9, 1948, in Muscatine, Iowa. After a brief residence in Chicago, the happy couple set up their first home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the births of their three sons's occurred there. In 1960, the family moved to Marion, Iowa, where their son's grew to adulthood. They spent two years in China on assignment with Mr. Collins' company. Prior to retirement, they moved to the rural Solon, Iowa, area where they had an acreage and enjoyed hosting all of the families and grandchildren. She is survived by her sons, Kevin LaRoy Collins and wife, Jeanne, of Mesa, Arizona, Kim Allen Collins and companion, Ancil Davis, and Kane Drury Collins of Kansas City, Missouri; eight grandchildren, Kendi L. Collins, Deke Gleim and Misty Schwieso of Des Moines, Iowa, Kory D. Collins and wife, Terri, and Cameron J. Collins of Kansas City, Missouri, Bree A. Dahm and Jay Clang and wife, Maria, of Mesa, Arizona, and Terry Clang and wife, Valerie, of Albuquerque, New Mexico; four great-grandchildren, Nastassja Pratt and Zachary Clang of Mesa, Arizona, Karma Kay Collins of Kansas City, Missouri, and Colin Clang of Albuquerque, New Mexico; and one brother, Charles Oldfield and wife, Diana, of Fruitland. She was preceded in death by her companion of many years, Francis Buzz Maish in 2007, her parents, and two sisters, Delores Peterson and Jackie Goolsby.

Tributes