Julie (Julia) M. Farrell passed away Saturday, June 18, 2016, at the Littleton Care Center in Littleton, Colo., at the age of 91.
Memorial services will be at the Rafferty Funeral Home in Moline, Ill., at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 16, with final internment at St. Patrick’s Church cemetery in Elroy. Memorials can go to the American Stroke Foundation or the National Audubon Society.
Born in Ontario in 1924, she was one of eight children from parents Joseph and Monica Dzekunskas.
As a young woman, she worked as a nurse’s aide at a hospital in Madison. She also worked for the Butterworth family, John Deere’s granddaughter.
She married Donald John Farrell in 1950. Together they managed his family’s dairy farm in Elroy. In the mid-1950s, they sold the farm and moved to Moline, Ill.
After raising two daughters, she returned to work as a nursing-home cook, first in Mauston, and then in Davenport, Iowa. She was always a favorite among the residents, who loved her cooking and cheery attitude.
Everyone who knew her spoke of her great energy and enthusiasm. After retiring, she actively pursued her love for the outdoors and traveling, enjoying scenic trips with her daughters to their respective states, Washington and Colorado. She loved everything about the great outdoors: hiking, fishing, birds and wildlife watching. Late in life, she took up oil painting of her favorite woodland scenes. She traveled to Lithuania with both daughters on separate occasions, delighting the locals by singing songs she had learned in childhood from her Lithuanian parents.
She had a zest for life and adventure, always looking for ways to make people smile or feel special. She loved children and animals, especially her little robins. She will be missed by all who knew her.
She is survived by her daughters, Mrs. Annette (Douglas) Syverson of Bozeman, Mont., and Marina (Marian) Gracen-Farrell of Denver.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald; a son, David, and a daughter, Madonna, in infancy; and her siblings, Joe, John, Mamie, Anne, Emily, Patrick, Tony and Walter in infancy.
