Melinda L. Stibal, 83 of Coloma, passed away Monday, April 25, 2022 at Hanson Hospice Center in Stevensville.
A memorial service celebrating her life will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, April 30 at the Coloma United Methodist Church, where the family will greet friends beginning one hour prior to the service. Donations in memory of Melinda may be made to the OutCenter of Southwest Michigan or the Coloma United Methodist Church. Those wishing to leave an online message of remembrance may do so at www.duffieldpastrick.com.
Melinda was born May 1, 1938 in Jackson, Michigan to Albert and Ardelle (Hulsizer) Slayton. She graduated from Napolean High School and Western Michigan University with her Master’s Degree in education. She taught for Coloma Community Schools from 1967 to 1998, both at Washington and Coloma Elementary, as a kindergarten teacher and school librarian. Since 1993 she has been the Opinion Maker columnist for the Herald Palladium. Melinda was actively involved in choirs and Christian Education Programs at the United Methodist Church of which she was a member since 1962, along with being the first female lay leader. She was also active in the YWCA, Kids Hope, and the OutCenter of Southwest Michigan. In her free time she enjoyed traveling across the United States and Europe, reading, and just life on Little Paw Paw Lake.
Survivors include her husband Milton whom she married September 6, 1958; her daughter Christine (Tom) Farthing of Naperville, IL; her son Jonathan (Melissa) Stibal of Coloma; a sister Suzanne R. (Clarence) Keene of Grass Lake, MI; and five grandchildren Kevin, Scott, and Sara Farthing, and Joshua and Jakob Stibal.
In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by a stillborn son Milton F. Stibal Jr. in 1961.