11/20/1993
Services for Reda Maurine (Martin) Van Zante, 92, Knoxville, who died on Nov. 20,
1993, at the Griffin Care Center in Knoxville, were Nov. 23, 1993, at the Garden
Chapel Funeral Home. Burial was at the Oakwood Cemetery. The Rev. Mark Pries officiated
at the service.
Reda was born on June 28, 1901, in Grand Junction, Colo., the daughter of Charles
and Mattie Knight Martin. When she was a small child, the family moved to the Knoxville
area where Reda received her education. Following her graduation from Knoxville
High School in 1923 she taught county school for five years. She taught in the Marion
County Communities of Rees, Red Rock and North Porterville.
On Nov. 8, 1928, she was married to Gradus Van Zante. The couple farmed in the Porterville
area until moving to Pella in 1968.
While she was a young girl, Reda made confession of her faith in the First Christian
Church in Knoxville. Following her marriage, she became a member of the First Reformed
Church of Pella. She was active in the Church for many years in Sunday School, Circles
and the Ladies Aid.
She had been a resident of the Griffin Care Center since early September. Reda had
spent the previous year with her daughter after she Was no longer well enough to
live at Hilltop North in Pella, where she had been a resident for eight years.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband in September 1974 and one
brother, Frank Martin in July 1984. She was the last survivor or among the Van Zante
brothers and sisters-in-law.
Survivors include her daughter, Helen Boertje of Pella; two grandchildren; four
great-grandchildren; one brother, Idris Martin of Knoxville; and one sister, Pluma
Murr of Melcher.
She will be remembered for her effectiveness as a teacher, her organizational talents,
her quilting and baking skills and her acceptance of all she met.
Memorials may be made to HOPE of Pella (for low-income housing needs) or to the
Ladies Aid of the First Reformed Church.
The Garden Chapel Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements