VINTON:  Nina Marie Wax Merchant, 93, died Wednesday, April 21, 2010, at the Vinton Lutheran Home.

     Funeral services will be held at 11 AM., Monday, April 26, 2010 at Garrison Methodist Church with Rev. Lynette Van officiating. Interment will be held at Big Grove Cemetery near Garrison.  Friends may call  at Phillips Funeral Home Chapel, 212 E. 6th St. in Vinton, from 4 to 8 PM on Sunday.

　 Survivors include daughters Mary Jocille (Don) Dvorak of Cedar Rapids, Carolyn Jeannette (Joseph) Alcorn of Covington, LA, and Barbara June (Dennis) Albers of Morton, IL.; 9 grandchildren Kent (Carrie) Dvorak, DeSoto, KS, Sherri (Terry) Olson, Cedar Rapids, IA, Joseph (Lesley) Alcorn, SugarLand TX, Donna (Phil) Petersen and Avril (Danny) Sons, Covington, LA, Julie Albers, Peoria IL, Michael Albers, Janelle Leman, and Jason (Nicole) Albers, Morton, IL, and 18 great-grandchildren; two brothers, Clifford Wax of Mason City and Herman (Shirley) Wax of Grinnell; and sisters-in-law Mary (Norm) Walker, Hazel Merchant and Arlene Merchant of Vinton, Winifred (Vic) Landuyt, Blairstown, and Joyce (Bill) Vosdingh, Cedar Rapids. She was preceded in death by her husband, Joe, her parents and one sister Delia Margaret Wax.

     Nina was born May 3, 1916, in Tompkinsville, Kentucky to Joseph and Maude (Page) Wax. The family moved to rural Vinton when she was 9.    She graduated from Vinton Lincoln High School and Normal Training in 1934. She taught country school following graduation. On August 29, 1936 she married Michael Joseph (Joe) Merchant at the Methodist Parsonage in Vinton. He died in November 1992.

     Nina was a member of the Garrison Methodist Church and the UMW Circle, the American Legion Auxiliary (64 years), Women’s Study Club (50 years), Bethany, Kensington and Rebekah Lodge.

The family extends special thanks to the staff at Evergreen I Residential Living in Cedar Rapids and the Lutheran Home in Vinton for their loving care.