Ione Stoewer

Ione Stoewer (Adelaid Ione Nichols), 94, passed away on February 13, 2008.

She was born to Dr. Harry C. and Effa Nichols in Berwyn, NE, and her family moved to Grand Island, NE, in her youth.

After graduating from high school, she studied nurse’s training while attending Lindenwood College in St. Charles, MO, and then the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where she pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma.

At the age of 23, Ione met and married Orville (Bud) Stoewer in Grand Island in 1936. After seven years of marriage, Bud was drafted into the Army during WWII. While he was away serving our country, Ione became a lab technician at Yale University, where she participated in cancer research on mice.

In 1946, Bud and Ione left their wintry Nebraska roots and headed for Bellflower and then Long Beach, CA, to start their family.

In 1961, Ione convinced Bud to retire from his loan business and move to beautiful Fallbrook to raise their two sons on an avocado ranch. While they lived in other cities once their sons were grown, their return to Fallbrook in 1990 was great for Ione, a serious lover of avocados.

In addition to living her life as a devoted wife and loving, proud mother and grandmother, Ione at one time owned her own yarn shop and co-owned an antique shop, both in Fallbrook. Her primary passion was her family but her secondary passions included calligraphy, needlework, gardening, swimming, water aquatic exercise, bridge and outings with her treasured friends.

Ione was preceded in death by her husband Bud and brother Wendall Nicholls. The beloved Ione is survived by son Sid Stoewer, son and daughter-in-law Phil Stoewer and Donna Reisbeck-Stoewer and grandson James Stoewer.

A viewing was held on February 18 and a memorial service on February 19 at Berry-Bell & Hall Fallbrook Mortuary, with interment at Fallbrook Masonic Cemetery followed by a reception at Silvergate Retirement Residence.