| Honored by: | Arnold and Sandra Webster & Verdis Webster Overshiner |
| Brick location: | D:2 map |
My mother, Avis (Duffey) Webster, was born on September 11, 1904, to Mattie (Durey) Duffey and Roy J Duffey on a century family farm in Delaware County, south of Manchester, Iowa. She attended Cornell College (1922-23) and majored in Home Economics at Iowa State College (1923-24) before teaching for two years at Lost Nation, Iowa.
On September 15, 1927, she married Vergil Kenneth Webster, who transferred from Cornell College to graduate from Iowa State College in 1925 with a degree in Farm Crops and Soils. They lived in several Iowa communities, including Emmetsburg, Marion and Ames, where he was an agronomist with the US Soil Conservation Service. They moved to the Duffey farm at Manchester in 1943, where he was the County Agent and later Area Agronomist for Iowa State University.
Two children were born into this family: Verdis Marie Webster (Overshiner) of Houston, Texas and Arnold Kent Webster of Des Moines, Iowa. Avis was a gracious and devoted mother and wife. She prized education, encouraging her children's curiosity and later careers in nature science and medicine. She loved music, having studied violin and piano, and she nurtured her children's musical talents. Avis valued lifelong education for herself as well as her children.
She was active in several social and philanthropic organizations through the years and on many occasions Avis meticulously researched and prepared educational programs for them on varying subjects. Her home consistently sparkled with her loving attention to detail and her expertise in culinary arts was renowned. Avis was a loving and educated woman of great integrity. Her home and family were the focus and love of her life. She and Vergil had eight grandchildren at the time of her death on September 2 , 1973.
She would be pleased to be remembered with her name inscribed next to that of her granddaughter, Jennifer Webster Koppmann, in the Plaza of Heroines.
3/3/95