Obituary of Helen J. Deaton

Dr. Helen J. Deaton M.D., age 94, longtime Iowa City Anesthesiologist, died Saturday, October 28, 2006, at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. A gathering of family and friends will be held from 4 to 7pm Wednesday, November 1, 2006, at Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service in Iowa City. Private family graveside services will be held at a later date at Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made in her memory to Mercy Hospital Foundation. Online condolences may be sent for her family through our website @www.gayandciha.com. Helen J. Derby Deaton was born February 5, 1912, in McMinnville, OR, the daughter of Vernon L. and Myrtle (Stewartson) Derby. She graduated Valedictorian of the Jerome High School Class of 1929, Jerome, Idaho. She received her B.S. Degree in 1933 from Linfield College, McMinnville, OR; here she served as a Laboratory Assistant in the Biolgy Department. She taught in the public schools back in Jerome from 1934 until 1936. She then went on to receive her a M.S. Degree from the University of Colorado in the school of medicine in 1938, and later her Ph.D in 1941, and her M.D. in 1943 all from the University of Colorado in the school of medicine. During her college years at the University of Colorado she had received a teaching fellowship. Following this she became a staff bacteriologist with the New Mexico Department of Public Health. She did a rotating internship at the University of Iowa in 1944, and her residency from 1944 to 1946. She was united in marriage to David L. Deaton on September 27, 1946, in Rock Island, IL. From 1946 until her retirement in 1986, Dr. Deaton has been in the practice of Anesthesiology at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City and also in private practice in Iowa City. She had been a member of the American Medical Association, Iowa State Medical Society, Johnson County Medical Society, and the American Association for Advancement of Science, and the Iowa City Pilot Club. She is survived by her daughter, Juanita Strait and her husband, Steven of Oxford; three grandchildren, Amber Strait of Pullman, WA, Erin Strait of Iowa City, and Tara Strait of Oxford; two step-children, Valerie Pilaria of Hawaii and Leonard Deaton of California, and nephew James Derby of Oregon. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, David L. Deaton; and a brother, Kenneth Derby. Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service is caring for Dr. Deaton’s family and her services.