MARY LOU BORTS

Indianola

Services for Mary Lou Borts, 96, who passed away Thursday, November 3, 2016 at The Village in Indianola, will be held 10:30 a.m. Monday, November 7 at Overton Funeral Home in Indianola with burial following in the Indianola I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

Mary Lou Borts was born to Troy and Florence Benton in Ewing, Alabama, on March 19, 1920. At age three, she and her family moved to Oklahoma with her two older sisters. The children, eventually five girls and six boys, worked on the farm as they were able. She graduated from a small school in Lexington, Oklahoma with straight A's.

Soon afterwards, she moved to Des Moines, to enroll in a business school, that offered a partial scholarship to new students. The "would be" school never materialized, but she decide to stay, and found work as a nanny for the Fridley and Blank families. Mary Lou met Doyle at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines. Their wedding on Christmas Eve of 1941, was hastened by Doyle's draft into the United States Army. Mary Lou followed her husband to Arkansas for Basic Training to spend time together before his deployment, then lived with Doyle's parents and worked in a military air craft parts plant while he served during World War II.

Since that time, she has been Doyle's partner in life until his death in 2009. They started and ran a number of businesses together, including farms with turkeys and Borts Oil Company in Indianola. After they moved to The Village in the late 90's, she has lived there peacefully until her passing, on November 3, 2016, at the age of 96. Mary Lou's kindness will be missed!

She was preceded in death by three sisters and five brothers, and by Doyle, her husband for sixty-eight years. She is survived by her brother Bob and her sister Imogene, and by her three sons, Don, Wyman (Osiris, or Sis), and Vernon (Christina), along with eight grandchildren, ten great grandchildren, and five great great grandchildren.

Visitation will be held 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday, November 6 at Overton Funeral Home in Indianola with family present.   Memorials may be given to the Alzheimer's Association.