Rodney Jolly
November 20, 1950 — April 3, 2022
Rodney Jolly passed on April 3, 2022, at the Pleasantville care center. Born November 20, 1950, the youngest child of Lorin Richard & Ruth Irene (Adamson) Jolly. Raised on the Jolly family farm south of Pleasantville Rodney attended Pleasantville schools graduating in 1969. He would go on to attend Iowa State University earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Farm Operations in 1973. While attending college he would continue his farming activities due to his father’s health issues. Upon graduation, in addition to farming, he would take over his brother Richards house painting business as a summer job to supplement the farm income. He would go onto marry and live on the neighboring farm that belonged to his uncle Kirtz. Along the way he would trade off the work of painting houses in favor of the job of digging trenches with the purchase of his first field tiling machine. At first the tiling machine was just for his own ground and then it became a job on neighboring farms. This was a perfect fit for Rodney, it combined his greatest strengths; love of agriculture, mechanical aptitude, working outdoors, and the social aspect of partnering with his customers to improve their farms.
Some of his best years tiling were accompanied with the help of Harris Van Waardhuizen. Harris had at one time worked for the co-op pulling anhydrous. It had seemed to Rodney that every tile job they ever pulled onto, Harris had always been there before and known what issue the landowner had. The two hard working go getters worked so well as a team at times customers would wonder who was in charge Rodney or Harris. That mutual respect that they had for each other made the work go smoothly no matter the obstacles they encountered.
If you needed to get a hold of Rodney, you could go to morning coffee or stop out to the shop. If he wasn’t farming or tiling the day was spent in the shop. There you could find him doing preventative maintenance. I don’t remember a time when he had to fix something that had broken down in the middle of the season. He always had the off season to tear down the combine, change oil in the tractor, replace cutters on the trencher chain, and paint his old tractors. The shop was his sanctuary, it is where he was in his element. His favorite past time was fixing up an old international harvester tractor. The mechanical repair was an easy task for him, like putting a puzzle together. The next free time he had may have been painting that same tractor. He always wanted things looking nice, even the old paint jobs still look parade worthy. All of these older tractors were available for the tractor rides he would go on, but his favorite was still the 806. Rodney attended the annual WHO tractor ride every year since its beginning. It was the connection with other farmers that he enjoyed so much. Visiting would also include going to the hospital or nursing home to let friends know they are important to him.
He is preceded in death by his parents Lorin & Ruth Jolly, and his brother Richard Jolly. He is survived by his wife Barbara Jolly, brother Arlen Dale Jolly, sister Joye (Jolly) Dillman.
As for me, I will always remember my uncle Rodney standing in the shop wearing his stripped Key brand coveralls. He would stop what he was doing to greet me with a smile, then light a cigarette and fill me in on the latest local gossip or talk about what he was in the middle of working on. Most times I would end up helping him with what he was tinkering on and we would just talk about anything under the sun. Walking into the shop won’t be nearly as pleasant; and just like that, time has made another used to be…….
In lieu of flowers, memorials be made to the Pleasantville FFA.
Some of his best years tiling were accompanied with the help of Harris Van Waardhuizen. Harris had at one time worked for the co-op pulling anhydrous. It had seemed to Rodney that every tile job they ever pulled onto, Harris had always been there before and known what issue the landowner had. The two hard working go getters worked so well as a team at times customers would wonder who was in charge Rodney or Harris. That mutual respect that they had for each other made the work go smoothly no matter the obstacles they encountered.
If you needed to get a hold of Rodney, you could go to morning coffee or stop out to the shop. If he wasn’t farming or tiling the day was spent in the shop. There you could find him doing preventative maintenance. I don’t remember a time when he had to fix something that had broken down in the middle of the season. He always had the off season to tear down the combine, change oil in the tractor, replace cutters on the trencher chain, and paint his old tractors. The shop was his sanctuary, it is where he was in his element. His favorite past time was fixing up an old international harvester tractor. The mechanical repair was an easy task for him, like putting a puzzle together. The next free time he had may have been painting that same tractor. He always wanted things looking nice, even the old paint jobs still look parade worthy. All of these older tractors were available for the tractor rides he would go on, but his favorite was still the 806. Rodney attended the annual WHO tractor ride every year since its beginning. It was the connection with other farmers that he enjoyed so much. Visiting would also include going to the hospital or nursing home to let friends know they are important to him.
He is preceded in death by his parents Lorin & Ruth Jolly, and his brother Richard Jolly. He is survived by his wife Barbara Jolly, brother Arlen Dale Jolly, sister Joye (Jolly) Dillman.
As for me, I will always remember my uncle Rodney standing in the shop wearing his stripped Key brand coveralls. He would stop what he was doing to greet me with a smile, then light a cigarette and fill me in on the latest local gossip or talk about what he was in the middle of working on. Most times I would end up helping him with what he was tinkering on and we would just talk about anything under the sun. Walking into the shop won’t be nearly as pleasant; and just like that, time has made another used to be…….
In lieu of flowers, memorials be made to the Pleasantville FFA.
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