Rachel Nichols

Rachel D. Nichols, 65, a resident of Buffalo, Iowa, died Monday, Nov. 29, 2004, at Genesis Medical Center-East Campus, Davenport. Funeral services will be 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at the McGinnis-Chambers Funeral Chapel, Bettendorf. Burial will be in Rose Hill Cemetery, Buffalo. Serving as pallbearers will be Jim Hulse, Stephen Thompson, Creighton Harrington, Nick Larson, Michael Nichols, and Kyle Marxen. Rachel's son, Lawrence, serves as an honorary pallbearer. Visitation will be 4-8 p.m. Friday at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to Westside Assembly Church of God to fund foreign missionary trips.
Rachel was born April 7, 1939, in Clifton, Tenn., the daughter of Hubert Clay and Louise (Overton) Stricklin. She was united in marriage to Ray H. Nichols on April 7, 1962, in Columbia, Tenn. He preceded her in death on Jan. 30, 2002.
Rachel had worked at the former Winckley's in Davenport for a number of years and had also done piece work for the Red Jacket Pump Company in Davenport. In later years she responded to the call of the Lord and became an ordained minister. She founded her own ministry called Acts in Motion. During her ministry, she presided over many weddings and other religious activities. She had traveled to Russia as a missionary to provide Bibles to people as part of the Revival Fires Mission Outreach Program. Rachel enjoyed collecting figurines, cooking and crocheting for her grandchildren. She also taught Sunday school for a number of years and was a very active volunteer in area nursing homes.
Those left to honor her memory include her daughters Jodith Hulse, and her husband, Jim, Indianapolis, Ind., Theresia Marxen, Davenport, and Sherrie Nichols-Horn, Davenport; 11 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; her sisters and brothers-in-law, Penny and Tommy Fisher and Tommie and Stormy Garrell, and her brother, Elmer Stricklin, all of Tennessee; her son's wife, Penny Nichols, Buffalo; and her friends who were like family to her, Nancy Morley and Billie Jean Grimes.
In addition to her husband she was preceded in death by her parents, her son, Lawrence "Lanny" Nichols, her grandchildren, Nathaniel, Ronnie Lynn, and Timothy, her sister, Reda, and her brother, Burt.
Online condolences may be expressed to the family by visiting Rachel's obituary at www.McGinnis-Chambers.com.