Marion Stone

Marion Lois Stone, age 94 of New Hampton, IA, died Thursday, February 17, 2022, at New Hampton Nursing & Rehabilitation Center. Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Monday, February 21, 2022, at Prairie Lakes Church in New Hampton with Rev. Cory Orr officiating. Interment will be held at the New Hampton City Cemetery, with Dan Krueger, Jordan Nelson, Gabe Grout, Samantha Stone, Harry Brocka, and Jade Stone serving as pallbearers. Friends may greet the family from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. Sunday, February 20, 2022, at Hugeback - Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory in New Hampton. Visitation continues an hour prior to the service at the church on Monday. Marion’s remarkable life story began on Dec. 28, 1927, she was born to Charles and Anna Cecelia (Busse) Cole in their home in Lawler, where she grew up and attended school at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic School through the eighth grade before completing her education at Lawler High School. She had known a handsome young man named Vallie Neal Stone, who had been welcomed into the world by his parents in the same home where Marion was born five years later. Vallie had recently been discharged from the U.S. Army after spending three years overseas in England, Belgium, and Paris during World War II when he and some friends went to the Inwood Ballroom for a Thursday night dance. Years later, Marion told her children that “when I saw your Dad, I knew.” That night, it was Marion who asked Vallie to dance, and years later, he recounted the story about how Marion “kissed me right in front of the band and I surrendered.” But the story gets even better. The couple began dating and Vallie remembered that night at the Inwood was the last for a “few weeks that I got home before 5 in the morning. One night — or morning, to be more precise — Vallie told Marion that “things have got to change. I need to get some sleep,” and her reply was quick. “That’s OK, I will marry you! … I didn’t know that was the way one proposed. Three days later, I had a beautiful new wife.” Marion and Vallie were married on Sept. 27, 1946, at The United Methodist Church in New Hampton and their beautiful love story lasted for more than 60 years. The family grew to include nine children, who had a loving but soft-spoken mother who knew how to scare her kids straight with just a few words: “Wait until your dad gets home.” Marion never got her driver's license; in fact, the only thing she ever drove was the cultivator and she was meticulous with it, too. If she knocked some corn down, she stopped and straightened it out! But that meant she was rarely, if ever, alone, yet she deftly took care of her household and seemed to have an extra set of eyes to keep track of all of her children. She always supported her husband in his many business dealings, and she appreciated that when Vallie got home, he always took her for a drive so she could have some “quiet” time. Marion often told her children that what made her marriage so rock solid was the fact that “I have always come first with your dad.” Marion loved to dress up, go dancing with Vallie and spend a night at various dinner clubs with her husband and their friends, and when Vallie “retired” and began taking his toy collection to various shows, Marion always went with him. She loved those trips, save for when Vallie would stop at a flea market and walk around for what seemed like hours! She enjoyed traveling, as long as she could do it by car, and she knew every diner that had the best pie and ice cream, too. She raised a beautiful family, one that grew to include 21 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren, but she also persevered through the difficult times in her life that included losing her son, Curtis, at a young age and the love of her life in 2007. As her husband once wrote, Marion was little but mighty. She had a way of being the boss without anyone else, including Vallie, knowing it. Her loss will be keenly felt by those who knew and loved her, but our hope is that they know that today, she and Vallie are reunited and dancing the night away. Marion is survived by four sons, Neal (Susan) Stone of New Hampton, IA Craig Stone of New Hampton, IA, Vallie (Shirl) Stone of New Hampton, IA, and Stewart (Pam) Stone of Charles City, IA; four daughters, Bell Christen Stone of Camden, ME, Leslie (Dennis) Hansen of New Hampton, IA, Alice Stone of Milwaukee, WI, and Faythe (Michael) Stone-Brocka of Denver, IA; 21 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; and one brother, Ray Cole, of Peoria, AZ. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Vallie, in 2007; a son, Curtis Stone; and a grandson, Tate Grout. In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed towards The Alternatives Pregnancy Center https://www.alternativescenter.org and Cover my 6 Iowa https://www.cm6iowa.org/