William "Bobbie" Mccool

   William Bobbie, son of John and Mildred (Foresman) McCool, was born February 7, 1931, in Guthrie County, Iowa. He and his twin brother John Buddy attended country schools near their home and graduated from Bayard High School in 1949.

   On March 13, 1954 Bobbie was united in marriage with Mary Darlene Griffin at the United Methodist Church in Bayard. Four children were born to this union. Bobbie farmed on several farms in the Bayard and Coon Rapids area before settling on a farm southeast of Bayard in 1961. They retired in 1985 and moved into Bayard.

   Bobbie is an active member of the United Methodist Church in Bayard. He was an avid user of the Bayard Library and thoroughly enjoyed riding his bike around town. He also enjoyed jigsaw puzzles.

   In 2015, Bobbie became a resident of Thomas Rest Haven in Coon Rapids, Iowa, where he passed away on Tuesday, October 10, 2017. He was 86 years, 8 months and 3 days of age.

   Bobbie is preceded in death by his parents and sisters-in-law Donna McCool and Doris McCool and brother-in-law Ralph Linder. He is survived by his wife Darlene McCool of Bayard; children: Donald John McCool and wife Rina of Bayard; Jeffery Lee McCool and wife Gayla of Bayard; Richard Dean McCool and wife Billie Jo of Redfield, South Dakota; and Cheryl Ann Haynes and husband Charles of Glenwood; 12 Grandchildren; 24 Great-grandchildren; Brothers Paul McCool and special friend Helen McCord of Guthrie Center and John Buddie McCool of LeRoy, Minnesota; Sisters: Marjorie Linder of North Platte, Nebraska and Janice McCool of Owasso, Oklahoma.

Bobbie's family requests that  memorials be made to the Bayard Public Library or Bayard Methodist Church in his name.

Visitation
Friday, October 13, 2017 ~ 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
United Methodist Church
Bayard, Iowa

Memorial Service
Friday, October 13, 2017 ~ 2:00 PM
United Methodist Church
Bayard, Iowa

Officiating
Reverend Karen Patrick

Congregational Hymns
“The Old Rugged Cross”
“I’ll Fly Away”
Lula Garnes, Organist

Prerecorded Music
“Long Black Train”
By Josh Turner

Interment at a Later Date
Highland Township Cemetery
Bayard, Iowa

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker"     -- so God made a Farmer.

 God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board"     -- so God made a Farmer.

 "I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild; somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife’s done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it"     -- so God made a Farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt, and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps; who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, and then pain’n from tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours"     -- so God made a Farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds, and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place.    -- so God made a Farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church; somebody who would bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says that he wants to spend his life "doing what dad does"    -- so God made a Farmer.