Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Westbrook, Mark R. 1985
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net August 13, 2010, 7:22 pm

The Ionia Sentinel-Standard, October 18, 1985
Longtime Ionia County farm leader Mark R. Westbrook, 95, of 5854 David 
Highway, Saranac, died Saturday afternoon at Ionia Manor.  

During his lifetime Westbrook served as local and state officer and board 
member in numerous farm organizations.  A member and elder of Muir 
Presbyterian Church, he was also a member of Ronald Grange for many years and 
served as the vice president of the Michigan State Grange; he was also a 
longtime member of Ionia County Farm Bureau.  He was president and a board 
member of the Dairyland Cooperative Creamery.  He was the originator and first 
superintendent of tractor pulling at the Ionia Free Fair; he served as 
president and a board member of Production Credit Association; and he was for 
many years director of the Stone rural school.

During World War II he served as head of the Agricultural War Board of Ionia 
County and was appointed by the late U.S. Rep. Alvin Bentley, R-Owosso, a 
member of the National Agricultural Advisory Board in the 1950s.  President 
and director of the Red Poll Cattle Association, he exhibited cattle at the 
Ionia Free Fair and the Michigan State Fair for more than 40 years.  He was 
also active for many years in Ionia County Republican party affairs.  He and 
late wife were named the state’s Outstanding Farm Couple by the Michigan Farm 
Bureau in 1967.

Born January 9, 1890, in Vergennes Township, Kent County, the son of Pindell 
and Minnie Adams Westbrook, he moved as a two-year-old boy with his parents to 
Sebewa Township and had been a resident of Ionia County since.  He attended 
local schools and McLaughlin Business School, a forerunner of Davenport 
College, in Grand Rapids, and was married to the former Leona Coe on June 3, 
1916, in Ionia.  The Westbrooks made their home on their Ionia Township farm 
until her death in May 1972.  After his wife’s death, Westbrook made his home 
with a son-in-law and daughter, Colin and Eleanor Williams, in Saranac.  

Surviving are three sons, Thomas and Robert, both of Ionia, and George of 
Jasper, Wyo.; two daughters, Dorothy Bird of Belding and Eleanor Williams of 
Saranac; 18 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren.  Also surviving are two 
sisters, Almeda Durkee of Grand Rapids and Hazel Garrison of East Lansing.

Funeral services will be held form the Muir Presbyterian Church Tuesday at 2 
p.m. with the Rev. Bette Dobbie officiating.  Burial will be in Sunset 
Memorial Gardens, Ionia.  Friends may visit Hull Memorial Chapel, Muir, until 
noon Tuesday.  A memorial has been established for Muir Presbyterian Church in 
care of the funeral chapel.


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