SANDRA FURNAL SNELSON

Funeral services for Sandra Furnal Snelson, 81, of Indianola, who passed away March 22, 2019, at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, will be held 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 27 at Overton Funeral Home in Indianola with burial following in the Hartford Cemetery.

Sandy enjoyed basketball, bowling, and band, and graduated from Hartford High School in 1956. She married Bobby Lee Furnal and they settled in to life on a farm outside of Hartford. To their union five children were born, Pamela Joy, Christopher Lee, Robert Lynn, Deena Jo and Ryan Donavan. Life on the farm was never boring. If she wasn't serving coffee to the neighborhood men that would gather around the kitchen table on Sunday mornings to swap stories with Bob, Sandy could be making food for farm hands, driving a tractor in the field or in a tractor pull, running to get parts for a truck that broke down, or a hundred other things at once. She and Bob enjoyed 25 years together farming, operating a trucking company, competing in tractor pulls, and fishing in Minnesota, until his death in August of 1981. Sandy then moved the family to Carlisle. She married Jim Snelson in September of 1983 and they continued to operate the truck line for a few years before she went to work for Principal Financial Group. Jim died in November of 2000 and Sandy continued working at Principal in the Human Resources department until her retirement. Retirement was an easy decision for Sandy because she enjoyed being at home. She loved to play video games while the laundry was going (she was a Mario Master!) or putter around in her flower beds. She had a passion for reading and you could call at most any hour and likely she'd be awake "with a good one" that she couldn't put down.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Donald and Maude Lester; sisters, Donna Furnal and Lois Darr; and husbands, Bob Furnal and Jim Snelson.

Sandy is survived by her children, Pam Nelson of Davenport, Chris Furnal of Carlisle, Rob (Katie) Furnal of Babbitt, MN, Deena (Brett) Furnal-Spruce of Davenport and Ryan (Candi) Furnal of Carlisle; grandchildren, Bret (Mary) Nelson, Kyle (Amanda) Spruce, Joshua (April) Furnal, Megan (Dustin) Vandeweerd, Andrew (Jennifer) Furnal, Aubrey Furnal, Caylin Furnal, Anden Furnal, and Carson Furnal; great-grandchildren, Dominic and Dilana Sears, Kole and Avery Spruce; brother, Gene (Helen) Lester of Colorado; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held 4 to 8 p.m., on Tuesday, March 26 at Overton Funeral Home. Memorials may be given to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.