Erma Stone
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Erma Stone, age 101, passed away at The Willows of East Lansing on February 10.
She enjoyed a very happy childhood with her siblings Wayne, Bette (Greening), and Howard and born on the family farm in St. Louis to parents Ira and Dora Comstock on May 26, 1920. They all attended Harrison Country School down the road. Their Grandma Comstock lived with their family and aunts, uncles and cousins all lived nearby. Family remained extremely important to Erma all her life.
She went to business school after graduating from St. Louis High School in 1937, and worked as a secretary for an insurance company. She married Phil Stone in 1941, and had four children: Pat, Ron, Janet and Marty. Phil and Erma lived in Lansing in 1942, planning to be there while Phil worked in tool and die during the war, but his father Stanley Stone died suddenly in 1944 and they moved back to Ithaca to help his mother, Bernice, who still had children in high school. They remained there for 18 years. Erma was close to her own and Phil’s families, and her children remember a happy childhood and close relationships to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Moving back to Lansing in 1957, Erma cared for her family and made friends all around her. She was always busy, never missed PTA meetings, collected for the March of Dimes, took school census, worked on the election board, used her sewing skills to make clothing for her children and herself, did alterations for others, and made drapes for Palmer Stone Paint Company customers. After her children were grown, she worked as a sales clerk at JC Penney, later becoming a teacher’s aide at Holmes Street School until she and Phil retired. Phil died in 1997 after 56 years of happy marriage.
She had an encyclopedic mind and was often consulted on details that people couldn’t remember about their own lives. She sent 60 birthday cards a year to her siblings, children, 14 grandchildren, 29 great grandchildren and their spouses. She could remember the entire year’s list of birthdays in sequence until very recently. She was an avid reader, but began losing her vision in her 70s. She continued to listen to books on tape from the State Library for the Blind for many years. She began using a cane at 95, a walker a few years later, and moved into The Willows in 2021. Remarkably, she never complained about anything. She was recently badly injured in a fall that she could not survive.
Erma was a believer in Jesus Christ and her family is comforted that she is now with the Lord in heaven, where the lame will walk and the blind will see. She was preceded in death by her parents, brother Wayne, sister Bette, and in 2020 by her dear son Marty. She is survived by her brother Howard (Delores) Comstock, her children Pat (Jack) McWilliams, Ron (Judy) Stone, Janet (Steve) Slater, Marty’s wife Jeanie Stone and all those wonderful grand and great grandchildren.
Her funeral will take place on Wednesday, February 16 at Barden Funeral Home in Ithaca, Michigan at 1:00 pm, with Rev. Steve Slater officiating. Burial will be in North Star cemetery next to Phil. Visitation will be held 2-4pm and 6-8pm on Tuesday, February 15 at the Barden Funeral Home.
The family wishes to thank her former aide of three years Felicia Thomas; dear friend, neighbor and aide Rhonda Bowers, as well as the many doctors, nurses and staff who cared for her all through the years until recently. Memorial donations may be made to the Gratiot County Historical Museum.
The family is being served by the Barden Funeral Home in Ithaca. Condolences may be left for the family online at www.bardenfuneralhome.com.
