Kathleen ‘Kathy’ Ball, 70

Sept. 24, 1951 —

Jan. 6, 2022

 

LITTLE TURKEY - Kathleen ‘Kathy’ Ann Ball, age 70 of Little Turkey, Iowa, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, at her home.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church in Lawler, Iowa with Rev. Nick Radloff officiating. Private family burial will be at a later date at Sacred Heart Cemetery, Reilly Ridge.

Friends may greet the family from 3-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, at Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory in New Hampton, Iowa, where there will be a 6 p.m. scripture service. Visitation continues an hour prior to the Mass at the church in Lawler on Wednesday. Online condolences for the family may be left at hugebackfuneral home.com.

Kathy was born on Sept. 24, 1951, to Florian and Irma (Wurzer) Hageman in New Hampton, and she grew up on a farm north of Lawler, the second oldest of the Hageman’s 10 children. She attended country school, and when Turkey Valley School was formed, she took the bus each day to and from school in Jackson Junction. At Turkey Valley High School, she was a member of the choir and active in 4-H. She graduated with the Class of 1969.

Kathy attended Area I, the forerunner to Northeast Iowa Community College, for secretarial training and then took a job in LaCrosse, Wis., working for Trane Heating and Air. 

While in LaCrosse, Doug Ball was home on leave from the Army. He had a friend who mentioned he should call Kathy. To this day, he’ll tell you it was the best phone call he ever made. The two began dating, fell in love and were married on April 3, 1971, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Reilly Ridge of rural Lawler. 

Kathy joined Doug at Fort Hood in Texas, and the couple then moved to Iowa when her husband finished his military career, living south of Fredericksburg. They later returned to Texas for work and five years later settled by Little Turkey, where the Balls raised their three children,  Lisa, Jared and Chad.

The Ball children had a mother who lived a life that was the epitome of selflessness. Kathy always put others — her husband, her children, her friends and complete strangers — first. She served as Girl Scout leader, loved working on various crafts and projects (especially quilting and needle point), enjoyed tending her gardens and flowers and found joy in bird-watching. She was a faithful servant at both Reilly Ridge and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church, where she served as director of religion education for a number of years and spent many hours promoting, growing and supporting the Catholic Church.

In 1987, she accepted a position as a custodian at Turkey Valley Community Schools. Both students and staff members throughout the years remember her for not only the diligent work she did but also for the kindness and caring she showed them throughout her 28 and one-half years with the district.

Kathy loved volunteering, and her amazing organizational skills helped the many organizations that she supported. She donated blood, she made beautiful Quilts of Valor for area veterans, she was a member of the Catholic Daughters of America at Mt. Carmel, and she was a Lifetime Member of the Lawler American Legion Auxiliary. 

She and Doug willingly gave their time to the Chickasaw County Food Pantry, she was a member of the Chickasaw County Community Foundation. She sponsored children through the Catholic Foundation (Unbound), and her current ‘kids’ were from Uganda and Honduras. She was a member of the Seven Sisters of Apostolate.

Kathy would do anything to make the world around her a better place. If she saw weeds in the sidewalk or in the flower beds at church, it never occurred to her to walk past; instead, there she was, pulling the weeds before going into a Mass or a meeting.

The Balls loved to travel — visiting places like Rome, Maine, Hawaii and Alaska — but in her later life, the best days for Kathy came when she could spoil her eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Survivors include her husband, Doug; two sons, Jared (Kimberly) Ball of Lawler and Chad (Crystal) Ball of Ft. Mitchell, Ala.; one daughter, Lisa (Rob) Cloninger of Boise, Idaho; her mother, Irma Hageman of New Hampton; eight grandchildren, Alex, Justin and Ethan Cloninger, Courtney and Lauren Ball, Jordan Prevette and Damian and Dominic Ball; two great-grandchildren, Peyton Cloninger and Lakelyn Moody; two brothers, Robert ‘Tex’ Hageman of Davis Corners, Iowa and Mark Hageman of New Hampton; six sisters, Karen (Keith) Weiss of Madison, Wis., Jolene (Joe) Rosenbaum of Little Turkey, Alice Miller of Ossian, Iowa, Laurie (Doug) Hanson of Decorah, Iowa, Sylvia (Jeff) Schluetter of New Hampton and Gladys (Randy) Schluetter of New Hampton; one sister-in-law, Nancy (Kevin) Willadsen; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her brother, Ronald Hageman; father, Florian (Zip) Hageman; parents-in-law, Orville and Viola Ball; and brother-in-law, Joe Miller.