MARGARET A. RHOADS, 94, of Cherokee, Iowa, passed away Friday evening, January 17, 2014 at Countryside Estates in Cherokee.

Funeral services will be Thursday, January 23rd, at 1:30 p.m. at the Meriden Evangelical Free Church in Meriden, Iowa. Pastor Larry Ostercamp will officiate. Burial will be in the Oak Hill Cemetery at Cherokee. There will be a family prayer service at 1:15 p.m. at the church on Thursday. Visitation will be on Wednesday from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. with the family present from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee. Online condolences can be left at www.boothbyfuneral.com

Margaret was born on February 25, 1919 near Quimby, Iowa, to Charles and Myrtle (Pelton) Rhoads. She graduated from Cherokee Wilson High School in 1938. She taught Sunday School for many years and also conducted Summer Bible Schools for the American Sunday School Union. Margaret went to Omaha Bible Institute (1945-1948). She returned to Cherokee and worked for the family Rhoadside Greenhouse until 1972. She joined the Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1975 and took a one year summer course at the University of Oklahoma. She had Jungle Camp Training in southern Mexico and was assigned to the Phillipine branch from 1976 til 1995 and was a manager of a guest house for 14 of those years. She joined a translation team in 1990 til 1995 to proof read the New Testament and help Phillipines from several remote language areas.

She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers and their wives: Stanley "Choppy" and Dorothy Rhoads, Walter "Bud" and Mae Rhoads, and a nephew Dale Rhoads.

She is survived by one sister: Dorothy Gano of Cherokee, Iowa; niece Fran (Larry) Myhre of Sioux City, Iowa; nephews: James Rhoads of Des Moines, Iowa; James Gano of Cherokee, Iowa; Stanley Gano of Nevada; niece: Lynn Rhoads of Cherokee, Iowa; many grand nieces and nephews; special friends Dave and Dian Pearse of Aurelia, Iowa, and many friends in the Phillipines.