Agnes M. Ayoub

Agnes M. Ayoub, 95, of Grand Island, died on her birthday, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, at Good Samaritan Society – Grand Island Village. Mass of the Christian Burial will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. The Rev. Marty Egging will be the Celebrant. Burial of ashes will be in the Grand Island City Cemetery. Family will be greeting friends from 4-7 p.m. Sunday at All Faith’s Funeral Home. A private family Rosary service will at 7:30 p.m. at the funeral home following the visitation. Agnes was born July 26, 1921, on a farm in rural York County, the daughter of Michael and Mary Ellen (McMahan) Rea. She was the fifth of 12 Rea children. She grew up on a farm near McCool Junction and later in York. She graduated from St. Ursula’s Academy in York in 1938 and won a scholarship to Duchesne College in Omaha where she had hoped to study pre-pharmacy. Needing instead to work, she spent two years in St. Louis before returning to Nebraska where she worked at the Hastings Ammunition Depot and the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant in Grand Island. In 1945 she met George Ayoub at a dance at the Glovera ballroom in Grand Island. The couple was married June 1, 1946, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Grand Island. They had two children, Monica, born in 1947, and George II, born in 1949. Agnes was a school secretary for the Grand Island Public Schools for 38 years, seven at Howard Elementary School and 31 years at Walnut Junior High School. At Walnut she helped shepherd thousands of young teens and pre-teens through school, priding herself on knowing all their names and going out of her way to always have a kind word for them. She was often greeted in public by former Walnut students, most particular the many office aides whom she knew best. Even traveling out of state, Agnes would run into students who remembered her fondly. After 31 years she also was blessed to have been the “office lady” for two generations of Walnut students. Aside from keeping the office running smoothly, she was known to pay for a kid’s lunch, football shoes and vocal music outfits. She would bring students home with her in blizzards until their parents could pick them up. She also gave many Walnut students good counsel as they traversed the perils of junior high. Agnes also served as a mentor and part-time mother to dozens of Walnut staff members and their children. She was always ready with advice, a thoughtful word or pointed push in the right direction, all done with her trademark sense of humor. She loved watching her grandson Max play sports and was a regular at his college baseball games into her 90s. She played cards with the same group of women for over 30 years. She was an avid reader of books and enjoyed doing the daily crossword puzzles in the paper. Survivors include a daughter Monica McClure of Grand Island, and a son George (Jacalyn) Ayoub II of Grand Island; two sisters, Margaret Meyers of Sacramento, Calif., and Eileen Esch of Mesa, Ariz. and a brother Charles Rea of College Station, Texas; one grandson. Max Ayoub, of Kearney; a special niece Patti Buettner of Grand Island; and many nieces and nephews, who considered her the family matriarch. She was preceded in death by her husband, George; brothers, David, Pat, Larry, Tom and Gene and sisters, Cecelia, Roseanne and Loyola. Memorials should be sent to the Grand Island Public Schools Foundation where a scholarship in the name of Agnes Ayoub will be established to help Walnut students go to college.

Agnes M. Ayoub

August 26, 1921 - July 26, 2016

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Agnes M. Ayoub

August 26, 1921 - July 26, 2016

What We Do

Flowers & Gifts

Plan Ahead

About Us

Resources

Obituaries

Grief & Healing

Contact Information

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