Rachel Keeley Porter

Rachel Keeley Porter

Coralville

Rachel Keeley Porter died peacefully in her home on Tuesday, October 29, 2024.

A joyful remembrance of her life will be held on Saturday, November 9, 2024, at 11:00 am at Lensing’s Oak Hill Funeral and Cremation Service, 210 Holiday Road, Coralville. Hawkeye and Red Hat attire are encouraged! Anyone who wishes to share a memory is welcome to do so and she can’t “poke” back! Cremation has taken place and remains will be interred in Oak Hill Cemetery Coralville at a private family service with close friends. Any memorials may be directed to the Coralville Community Food Pantry, Friends of the Coralville Public Library, Jackson County Historical Society (Maquoketa), Forevermore University of Iowa Scholarship Fund, or any organization of the donor’s choice.

Rachel was born on August 19, 1936 in Maquoketa, IA, the fourth child of H.D. and Rachel (Foraker) Keeley, on the hottest day of the hottest summer following the coldest winter on record at that time.

She said she had “an idyllic” childhood. Her education began at the age of five in the first grade and continued in the Maquoketa schools through high school graduation in 1953. She treasured her school friends throughout her life, meeting monthly with “the Lunch Bunch” and never missing a class reunion. Following high school she attended and graduated from Stephens College in Columbia, MO and then earned the degree of B.S. in Business Administration at the University of Missouri in 1957. While attending Stephens she met her future husband, Melvin M. Porter II. They were married August 24, 1958 in the First Congregational Church of Maquoketa. They began married life in Clayton and Richmond Hts., MO, then lived in Harvey and Glenwood, IL followed by Northvale, NJ before settling permanently in Coralville in 1974. Mel and Rachel were the proud parents of three children, Rachel Keeley, Laura Lee and M. Montgomery III.

During their years in Northvale she was active in the Closter First Congregational Church serving as a Sunday School teacher, deaconess and choir member, Girl Scouts, Northvale PT, and was very active in the election of Board of Education members and the successful effort to build a new middle school.

In Coralville she helped with Girl and Boy Scout troops, PTA, the West High Band Booster and Party After the Prom committees, served on the Coralville Community Betterment Committee, was a long term financial advisor for the Alpha Omicron chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha, served many years as Treasurer of The Friends of the Coralville Public Library, and was a long term election official.

She spent countless hours in her yard and gardens believing that “one is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth”. She dearly loved her close circle of special friends, longtime wonderful neighbors, the Hawkeyes (especially football!), reading, music, cooking and entertaining, cross stitch and other needlework, decorating for Christmas, bridge club, bowling and Red Hats. The Maquoketa Caves State Park and Kinnick Stadium were favorite places from a very early age. Her husband, children, grandchildren, and “the greats” were the joys, and focus, of her life.

She is survived by her daughter, R. Keeley of Coralville, her son M. Montgomery (Monty) of Houston, TX; eight grandchildren, Amy Falco (Michael), Rachel and Rebecca Porter-Adams, Sarah Hitzeroth (Joseph), Emma Soukup, M. Montgomery IV, Gavin (Brittany Pond, fiance), and Adysen Porter; seven great-grandsons Brayden, Brody, Elijah, Theodore, Berkley, Xavier, and baby “George” Falco on the way; two great granddaughters, Vivian Rae and Holly; a brother-in-law Clyde S. Porter, Jr. (Margaret) of Arlington, TX; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

She was predeceased by her husband, Mel, her daughter, Laura Porter-Soukup, great granddaughter, baby Lola; her parents, an infant sister Myrtle Lucille, a brother and sister-in-law, Robert F. and Eula Mohr Keeley, and sister, V. Lee Keeley; a niece Ann Marie Keeley, a nephew, Harold C. Keeley; and father and mother-in-law, Clyde S. Sr. and Priscilla B. Porter.

Online condolences at www.lensingfuneral.com