Memorial
Gertrude “Trudy” Opal James, 90, peacefully passed to heaven on Monday, August 4, 2014. Visitation will be from 5:00 until 7:00 PM Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at Cedar Memorial Park Funeral Home. Funeral services will take place 1:00 PM Thursday at the Cedar Memorial Park Chapel of Memories. Interment will take place at the Mt. Calvary Cemetery.
Trudy was born to Ruby Frame on September 19, 1923. She graduated from Roosevelt High School in St. Louis, MO in 1941 and married William “Bill” Gentry Larkin at Lafayette Park Methodist Church. When Bill died of cancer in 1949, Trudy became a career gal in St. Louis, working for the St. Louis Post Dispatch and KSD Radio and TV. On December 1, 1956, Trudy married Clyde M. James, in a chapel ceremony at the St. Louis Cathedral. They welcomed their only child in 1960. Clyde’s work brought them to Cedar Rapids in 1966, where they enjoyed many long years filled with great friendships, many begun around a bridge table. Trudy worked at WMT-TV in several capacities, and concluded her professional career as a teachers’ aide at Bowman Woods Elementary. After Clyde’s death in 2005, Trudy made her home at Keystone Cedars where she made new friends and continued to enjoy bingo, bridge, and casino trips.
Trudy is survived by her daughter, Jenifer (Steve) Phelan, granddaughter Tabitha (Marty) DeCamp, grandson Thad (Kristin) McVay, and three adored great-grandsons, Brady DeCamp, and Grant and Dylan McVay, all of Cedar Rapids, and a nephew, Joe Maly Jr., of Caseyville, IL, along with many caregiver-friends.
She was preceded in death by her mother, Ruby Frame; husbands Bill and Clyde; and a twin sister at birth, as well as Bill’s parents Sadie and Gentry, Clyde’s sister Dorothy Maly, and many “almost-family” friends.
Memorials honoring Trudy may be made to Camp Courageous, Discovery Living, or the blackjack table at a casino of your choosing!