Alberta L. Kirchhoff, 100, of Sumner, died Sunday, September 24 , 2017, at the Hillcrest Home in Sumner.

Memorial services will be held 10:30 a.m. Friday, September 29, 2017, at the Hillcrest Home Chapel in Sumner with Rev. Mike Christie officiating.  Inurnment will follow at Union Cemetery in rural Sumner. Visitation will be held from 9:30 a.m. until service time Friday at the Hillcrest Chapel. Becker-Milnes Funeral Home in Sumner is assisting Alberta’s family. Memorials may be made in her name to the Cedar Valley Hospice. 

Alberta Lila Kirchhoff was born September 5, 1917, in Banks Township of Fayette County, Iowa, to Dorsey and Mamie Margaret Fridley Cannell.  Alberta was born the day that her grandfather, Albert E. Fridley, was buried after having been fatally injured in a tractor accident. She was baptized November 18, 1917 at Union Evangelical Church, rural Sumner by Rev. H.C. Brunnemeier. She was later confirmed there on December 28, 1926. Alberta attended country school at Banks Township # 7, and then graduated from Sumner High School with the class of 1934. She later attended Upper Iowa University, Mason City Junior College, and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Drake University on January 25, 1970. For nearly fourteen years, she taught school at Banks #3, Banks #1, Fremont #6 (Westgate), and at Lime Creek #7, in Cerro Gordo County. On October 1, 1943, she married Hollis Kirchhoff at Union Evangelical Church. They later divorced.

While living in Des Moines, Alberta was employed by Pioneer Hybrid International, Inc. for twenty-six years, until she retired on October 1, 1982. After retiring, she traveled extensively throughout the world on mission projects and with the Friendship force started by Rosalynn Carter to make friends throughout the world. She also enjoyed entertaining people from foreign countries in her home. She had traveled on six of the seven continents and had scheduled a trip to Chile and Antarctica in October of 2001, but her doctor advised against it.

In December of 2000, she fell at her home in Des Moines and was hospitalized for a month. Due to failing health, on November of 2001, she entered Maple Crest Manor at Fayette, later transferring to the Hillcrest Home in Sumner. She was a past member of PEO Chapter of LS; the Ding Darling Chapter, Isaac Walton League of America; and a long-time member of Windsor United Methodist Church in Des Moines, Iowa. She was a member of PEO Chapter FH and Union United Methodist Church.

She is survived by one brother, Lowell (Kathryn) Cannell of Sumner; several nieces and nephews; and other more distant relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her son, Randy Lynn who died in infancy; three brothers, Vaylerd, Percy, and Forrest; and two sisters, Olive Bassett and Zinita Kirchhoff.