Zenita B. Arthur, 98, of Fayette and formerly of Randalia and Westgate, died Thursday, January 15, 2015, at Maple Crest Manor in Fayette.

Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Monday, January 19, 2015, at Union United Methodist Church of rural Sumner with Pastor Johnny Ray Tucker officiating.  Interment will follow at the Church Cemetery.  Friends may call from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Sunday, January 18^th, at Becker-Milnes Funeral Home in Sumner and for one hour preceding services at the church on Monday. Memorials may be given in her name to Union United Methodist Church or the Westgate Public Library. 

Zenita Bertha, daughter of Arthur and Bertha Jipson McLaury, was born March 29, 1916, in Oran Township of Fayette County, Iowa. She was baptized and confirmed at the Presbyterian Church in Oelwein and graduated from Oelwein High School. She received a teaching certificate from Upper Iowa University in Fayette and taught for one year at Rowley. On June 15, 1939, she was united in marriage with Lyle W. Arthur at the Presbyterian Church in Oelwein. The couple farmed in the Fayette, Randalia, and Sumner areas until retiring and moving into Westgate in 1977. Zenita had been a member of the Randalia United Methodist Church and currently belonged to the Union United Methodist Church of rural Sumner.  She was a member of the Eastern Star, Republican Women, Farm Bureau Women, the Gleaners Club at church, and the Westgate Study Club. Zenita loved to read, fish, play cards, especially bridge, and time spent at family cabins at Harpers Ferry on the Mississippi River.

She is survived by four sons, Steve (Sandi) Arthur of Sumner, Mark (Nancy) Arthur of Harpers Ferry, Clark (fiancé, Mary Smith) Arthur of Columbia, Missouri, and Richard (Joan) Arthur of Nora Springs; a daughter-in-law, DiAnna Arthur of Tripoli; seventeen grandchildren; twenty-three great grandchildren; one great great granddaughter; a sister, Delpha Andrusyk of Tucson, Arizona; and a sister-in-law, Mary Lou Sherwood of Percival, Iowa.

Zenita was preceded in death by her husband, Lyle in 1994; her son, Lonny in 1988; her parents; three brothers, Lester, Harry, and Vincent; and two sisters, Imogene and Zaida.