John Meister

John D. Meister, 80, of Eldora, died from natural causes on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 at the Eldora Nursing and Rehab Center. Following cremation, private family memorial services will be held at the Gifford United Methodist Church. Creps-Abels Funeral Home in Eldora is in charge of the arrangements.

John was born February 7, 1926 in Manning, Iowa, the youngest son child of John and Anna (Grau) Meister. John's childhood years were spent on a farm near Carroll, Iowa. He often talked of his childhood years with his pet dog, Shep. Shep is said to have saved Johnnie (as he was called in his earlier years) from drowning while swimming in the river as a child. He also reminisced of his childhood pony and surviving being run over by a tractor.

John married Luella Hoffman and to this union was born six children. John and Luella later divorced. Johnnie started his career as a truck driver for Omaha Cold Storage in Carroll and he continued in the trucking field his entire career. John's life was devoted to his family and trucking and he retired in 1989. After retirement he lived in Newton, Iowa. He moved to Eldora in 1997 to be closer to his son, Wayne and family. John became a resident of the Eldora Nursing and Rehab Center in 2005.

He is survived by sons, LeRoy (Chris) Meister of Tempe, Arizona, Russell (Jean) Meister of Hubbard, Iowa, John (Lori Rinehart) Meister of Des Moines, and Wayne (Karen) Meister of Eldora; daughters, Janice (Bob) Porter of Columbia, Missouri and Shirley (Curt) Bunte of Hubbard; fourteen grandchildren; and eleven great grandchildren. Preceding him in death were his parents; his brother, Everett; and sisters, Annie Nelson and Madge Pluckham.