Harriet J. (Boerema) Preston

Funeral services for Harriet J. (Boerema) Preston, age 95, of Rogers, Arkansas formerly of Sheldon who passed away on Monday, May 24, 2021 at Circle of Life Hospice in Bentonville, Arkansas. Graveside services will be held at 11:30 A.M. on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at East Lawn Cemetery in Sheldon with Pastor Paul Van Maaren ~ officiating.
Visitation with family present will be from 10 - 11 A.M. on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at the Andringa Funeral Home in Sheldon.

Harriet Preston was born June 22, 1925 in Colorado Springs to Lansing Dill and Ruth (Horton) and as a child lived in South Dakota, Indian and Iowa. Her father died when she was 10 years old and moved with her mother and little brother Stephen, to Indiana where her mother cooked meals for guests at a hotel on Lake James where Harriet cleaned rooms and made beds at the age of 12. During World War II they moved to Sibley, Iowa to be near her aunt and uncle and where she graduated high school and later to Drake University to study theater and radio after receiving a “1” at Nationals for her extraordinary singing voice.
In 1944, while traveling home from college by train, she met John Boerema, an Airforce serviceman from Sheldon and after a year of writing letters, upon his return after the war, where married. I doubt that Harriet ever dreamed of being a farmer’s wife but helped John in every aspect of running a Grade A dairy farm and being a homemaker. She was a wonderful seamstress, gardener, and mother of 3 children: Joyce, Frank, and Trudy, who loved the way she filled our home with music and prepared good meals. She often sang for the church and such comforting songs as “I Know My Redeemer Liveth” and “His Eye Is on The Sparrow”. Harriet was active in many organizations and taught Sunday school and helped with church camp in the summers.
In her late 40’s her life took a new course when John was asked to install a donated hydro turbine into a river in Ethiopia, Africa, to bring electricity to the missionary compound there, which was the 1st step in traveling to several continents for the next 20 years, repairing mission stations and building structures that were needed wherever the Lord led them to work.
Throughout her life, Harriet was a faithful, loving and encouraging wife to John and after his death, shared in a book which Lori Lutz authored, about John’s life which was titled “The Uncommon Commoner”, which gave insights to the powerful way the Lord had worked in their lives. Harriet later married Ron Preston, an agricultural missionary from Nebraska, who served the Lord in Ethiopia, whom they had met on the 1st year of service abroad. They were married in 1996 and lived together in Nebraska until his death in 2009.
Harriet loved the Lord and depended on Him in all aspects of her life and learned contentment, whether living in a tent in the mountains of Indonesia or in a hut in the bush of Africa. Her life was dedicated to serving the Lord and honoring His Name with her life.
Mom, we loved your sense of humor, especially when you were older and letting us know that you “could not afford the luxury of feeling sorry for yourself” and that “getting older was not for wimps”. You have left a wonderful legacy of trusting in the Lord in everything, giving thanks in all the things and to pray about everything and reflecting His love by serving others wherever we are. We miss you and your faithful prayers for all of us.
Harriet is survived by her two daughters, Joyce Bond and Trudy and her husband, Al Meendering; six grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, a son, Frank and her husbands, John Boerema and Ron Preston.