Mary Jane Wille

Mary Jane Wille, 96, of Sioux City, passed away Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016, at her residence.
Services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Interment will be in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be 2 to 4 p.m. Friday, with a rosary at 2 p.m., at Larkin Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home.
Mary was born on Dec. 1, 1919, in Dunlap, Iowa, to John and Beulah (Crone) Henney. She grew up on a dairy farm near Denison, Iowa, where she attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic Grade School and Denison High School, graduating in 1937. After high school, she worked as a clerk-steno for a Department of Agriculture farm loan agency in Denison, Ida Grove and Ames, Iowa. Later, during the war years, she worked for the same agency in Little Rock, Ark., and Denver, Colo. She worked for several years for Selective Service (the Draft Board) in Carroll, Iowa, and also worked briefly for the War Labor Board in Denver and the National Park Service in Omaha.
Mary Jane married Carl Wille in 1941. After his service in the U.S. Army, they lived in Carroll until moving to Sioux City in 1965. They both worked in the office of the Bishop of Sioux City. Carl preceded her in death in 1978.
Mary Jane was a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, where she had worked with the Peace and Justice Committee and the Endowment Board. She was a longtime member of Catholic Daughters and the League of Women Voters. Her special interests were good government and the environment. Her personal interests included reading, playing bridge and keeping in touch with family and friends.
Mary Jane was nominated for Women of Excellence in 1992. During Mary Jane's first few years in the Sioux City League of Women Voters, she chaired several committees for state study teams. The first one was a study of how public education was financed in Iowa. It resulted in the Iowa League of Women Voters' position on an equalization plan to provide more state aid for poorer districts. Next she was chair of a study of the administrative agencies of state government. She also chaired a study of Iowa voting laws, which resulted in some changes in voter eligibility requirements. She was involved in two action campaigns for changes to the Iowa Constitution.
Mary Jane was president of the local League from 1971 to 1972. She did the first Sioux City LWV Perry Creek Study in 1972 and 1973 and was the voter editor from 1973 to 1974. In 1975, she attended a citizens' training program in Kansas City which was sponsored by Region VII of the EPA in order to comply with the requirement in the Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 that they not only seek citizen involvement in their programs, but that they train citizens in how to become involved. So she became a clean-water activist. From 1975 to 1988, she was water chairman for the Sioux City LWV. In that role she served on a committee of the Iowa 2000 program. In 1980 to 1982 and again in 1985 to 1987, she was also the National Resources chair. She was also on the Campaign Finance Study, the Energy Study, and, more recently, the study of U.S. Agriculture Policy & Programs. In 1988 to 1989, she was chair of International Relations/National Security. The next year she was co-editor of the VOTER. From 1991 to 1992 she was chair of the Perry Creek Study.
Those left to honor her memory include her son, Mark Wille of Phoenix, Ariz.; and daughter, Teresa of Sioux City.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; brothers, George, Bob, and Warner; and sister, Betty.