Esther Mabel Smart

Esther Mable Huddleson was born on June 19, 1925 in Lincoln Twp. in Cass County Iowa, to George A. and Wilma Margaret (Maas) Huddleson. Esther was called home to be with our Lord and Savior on Sunday, October 21, 2018, there to be reunited with her husband of 49 years, Kenneth, and her sons, Kennie Dean and Burdette Lee.
At the early age of eleven months her beloved mother passed away. She then went to live with her Uncle Otto and Aunt Lucy Hay Westphal on a farm in Adams County, where she would be raised. She was not given the opportunity to know her birth given mother. They are rejoicing together in heaven. She often talked about her mother and father who raised her.
At an early age she was baptized and confirmed in the First United Methodist Church in Corning, Iowa. Esther attended Washington number 5 and 7 in Adams County and enjoyed those days in the one room country school house. She would reminisce of her experiences at those schools, reciting poems she had learned. When she began her eighth grade year of school, her family moved to a farm west of the now Rosary Hospital in Corning. She began school in Corning, where she would graduate with the Class of 1943. This was during World War II and her class didn’t get a year book that year. She and her friends, one being Mary Cosaert would walk the two miles to school each morning and evening. One of her joys was learning to can vegetables working with her mother and father in the summer, feeding the horses, when they came in from the fields. She especially loved the chickens. She enjoyed going to her grand-daughters’ acreage and feeding the baby goats. She spoke about gardening every summer and loved to watch the flowers and vegetables grow. She was an active member of 4-H until her graduation.
Esther began her working career after graduation at Dunham’s Drug Store, then on to work for International Harvester as a bookkeeper. It was then that she met Kenneth they would marry on April 8th 1945 in Creston, Iowa. They made their home in Corning, Iowa. In February of 1949 they would move to her present home where she would reside for 69 years. Esther would also work at Gadberry Hardware Store for 19 years.
Esther was a life time member of the American Legion for 64 years, holding many offices within the unit. Once a member of Eastern Star in Corning and a member of the Corning Methodist Church.
Esther was a loving mother always willing to asset her children and friends in their time of need. She loved to be with them if it were only breakfast in the morning or coffee in the afternoon. She worried about all of them. She enjoyed helping with the cooking and being around her grandchildren and in later years being with her great grandchildren teaching them many household skills they will long remember. She enjoyed reading Poems and collecting them. For years she would write in her daily diary.
Esther is survived by two sons: Mickey Burl and wife Carol of Brooks, Iowa; Donald Glen and wife Sharon of Prescott, Iowa, one daughter: Mary Margaret and special friend Juan Anaya of Corning, Iowa. Her Grandchildren: Jeffrey Allen and wife Angie of Springfield, Ill; James Andrew and wife Melissa of Massena, Iowa; Kylee Smart Castillo and husband Seth of New Market, Iowa; Nicholas Smart of Prescott, Iowa; Eric Smart and fiancée Nikki Seberger of Creston, Iowa; Matthew Smart of Prescott, Iowa; Judith and her husband Jeremy Butcher of Corning, Iowa. Great-Grandchildren: Zane, Hayden; Vincent and Joseph Smart of Springfield, Ill; Vicente and Averyle Butcher of Corning, Iowa; Augustus Gus Castillo of New Market, Iowa; Azelia Seberger of Creston, Iowa. Her friends from the Coffee Club at Kays where she enjoyed going (Esther had a wonderful sense of humor and left the coffee ladies in stiches on many occasions); and a host of other relatives; neighbors, and friends; her special friends: Lana Sorenson; Lois Jordening; and Carolyn Jackson of Corning, Iowa.
Those that have gone on before her were her husband Kenneth (1996); her sons: Kennie Dean (1989), and Burdette Lee (2018), her parents; her foster parents; brothers and their wives: Alvie (Otis) Mona and Opal, Arley (Buck) and wife Marie and Elba Harry (Pud) and wife Elaine; sister: Albia A, who passed at the age one; foster brothers: Albert his wife Fondeen and Otis and his wife Mildred Westphal; and host of relatives and friends too numerous to mention.