Iowa City, Iowa Eloise Arvesta Mountain Wright, 99, passed away on Saturday, November 28, 2015 at Oaknoll in Iowa City. Family graveside services will be held in the Resthaven Cemetery, West Des Moines, Iowa. The Henderson-Barker Funeral Home in West Liberty is in charge of arrangements. Eloise was born, November 21. 1916 in Clover Hills, Iowa and grew up on the Iowanola Dairy Farm owned by her father, Master Farmer Charles R. Mountain and his wife, Ethel Pearson. At fourteen, Eloise began two activities that would be her life’s enduring legacy. She began to teach Sunday school at the Congregational Church and founded a social group, the Sub Debs, in which she would participate for the next 80 years. She attended Iowa State University where she met John Robert Wright. In 1938 they were married. They raised two children, Suzanne Marie Wright Cutler and Charles Everest Wright. During World War II, she volunteered in the St. Louis, (Missouri) Day Care Centers caring for the children of working mothers employed in the war efforts. Eloise and her husband were active church members throughout their lives and travels, and helped found and support the Kirkwood E&R Church, their family’s home church for many years. Eloise was always very active in the church’s educational programs as well as membership drives. She also served as a leader in both the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Eloise was an accomplished violinist and played in the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kirkwood Symphony Orchestra. When Eloise’s children left for college, she returned to her educational pursuits and obtained her Child Psychology and Development degree in 1969 at Washington University in St Louis. Eloise taught Kindergarten in an inner city school of St. Louis until her retirement. After retiring, Eloise and her husband returned to farming in Cedar County, Iowa, where she was active in the West Liberty Christian Church. Eloise was a kind and generous spirit. She was unselfish, graceful, intellectually curious, always eager to learn new things, and most importantly, a woman of faith. She is remembered in life by her two children, Suzanne and husband Ray, Charlie and his wife Graciela; three grandchildren, Christopher, Grace and Rebecca; four great-grandchildren, Chaise, Elizabeth, Cara and Claire; and hundreds of her beloved students. She is preceded in death by her husband of 69 years, both her parents, and her sister Marie Mountain Clark. Resthaven Cemetery Click for Map and Directions