Anita Louise Larrington

Anita Larrington, 68, of Chariton passed away on Monday, October 11, 2021, in Chariton. Funeral services will be held on Friday, October 15, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. at Pierschbacher Funeral Home in Chariton. Visitation will be one hour prior to the start of service and will continue at a luncheon after the service at the First Baptist Church in Chariton. Memorials may be made to Anita’s family. They will decide later on how they would like to honor Anita’s life.

If unable to attend, you may join Anita’s family via livestream at https://my.gather.app/remember/anita-larrington

Anita Louise Koethe was born August 30, 1953, to Harcourt “Hank” and Betty (Norris) Koethe in Des Moines. She grew up in Avon Lake and graduated from Carlisle High School. Anita was named homecoming queen her senior year. After graduation in 1971, she went on to study music at Grandview College. While attending college, she met and married Verland Larrington Jr. The young couple married and began farming in Chariton, Iowa. During this union, they were blessed with three children: Katie, Amy, and Jestin “Jeddy”. When the children were younger, Anita enjoyed being a homemaker; gardening, and helping Jr. farm. After twenty-two years of marriage, the two divorced, but still continued to celebrate the holidays together with their children and grandchildren.

Once the children were older, Anita began working at Farm Bureau Insurance. She later decided to take on the bold move to open and operate her own insurance company, Larrington Insurance. This gave her the opportunity to help multiple people to get great insurance coverage at the best rates, which she loved to do.

Anita also loved to volunteer at the Senior Citizens Center, Rotary Club, bowling in Chariton and Corydon, and attending state bowling tournaments. She also enjoyed being a part of the Dazzle Fest celebration in Chariton. Her big role was finding people to do live window displays around the square and judging the competition.

Anita was also passionate about God. She was proud to be a member of the First Baptist Church. Anita volunteered with church youth programs and sang in the church choir. She loved attending Sunday services and would harmonize with her beautiful voice to all of the hymns.

By nature, Anita was quite competitive. She loved playing all games with her family, especially Skip Bo. She even had a sweater with mirrors on it that she liked to wear while gaming. The family swore that the mirrored sweater was used for cheating, but no proof was ever found.

Anita loved the color purple, flowers, and Mother’s Day. It was very important to her that her family got together for Mother’s Day Sunday for a lunch cookout and their annual trip to Ellis Greenhouse. There she would pick out a beautiful floral basket that was almost always purple for her gift.

Anita loved her mom, her sisters and their families. She enjoyed talking on the phone with her sisters and visiting about their favorite shows, like Dance Moms and The Bachelor. She also liked meeting them for birthday lunches and catching up with everything that was going on in their worlds. She was a great listener.

Anita’s true love and biggest passion were her children and grandchildren. She was kind, giving, proud, and always present for them. If her kids needed help with her grandkids, Grandma “NeNe” was always happy to step up. Anita liked to tell the grandkids that she was their “Uber driver” whenever she helped with rides to and from school, sports, church, and even the swimming pool. Sometimes Grandma NeNe would even make them say passwords before getting in the car. When the grandkids would visit, they loved to play “Candyland” outside, jump on the trampoline, have fireworks shows, and play with all grandma’s animals. Anita never missed out on coming out to Red Haw when her kids were camping. She would bring her coffee, Sprite Zero, or Diet 7up out to sip on during dinner and while visiting around the bonfire. She would often pay the grandkids to brush her hair or rub her back. If the kids said that they were bored, Anita would holler, “Hairbrush?”, and the kids would scatter in opposite directions. Grandma NeNe always attended the grandkid’s events. She was their loudest cheerleader and proudest fan.

Anita was known for her generosity. She would go without things for herself to be able to give to those she loved. Her caring and kind personality towards her family, friends, and even her pets, was admired by everyone. Anita’s love, laughter, playfulness, and goofy style will always be remembered by all of the many lives that she touched.

She will be greatly missed by her children: Katie (Jason) Farrell, Amy (Jonathan) Wilson, Jestin (Lindsey) Larrington; grandchildren: Paige, Macy, and Jenna Farrell, Carter Gustafson, Neva and Allie Wilson, Maddix and Paisley Larrington; siblings, Sherry Chandler and Suzie (Howie) Garnett; along with many nieces, nephews, and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Hank and Betty Koethe.