Miriam Yoder

Miriam Martin Yoder was the fourth child of Bishop Elmer G. and Ada Martin. Born on April 7, 1929, she and her four sisters and one brother learned hard work and responsibility growing up on the mill property at Beechdale Road in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. At their home, they slept in a loft above the only heat source, the large kitchen cook stove. They had electricity from a water-wheel powered generator. At night, when the wheel wasn’t running, they used kerosene lamps. Every Saturday, they woke up at 1:00 AM, in order to travel to the Farmer’s Market in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The five children went with their father to sell meats, cheese, butter and other products they had prepared at their mill.
Miriam attended Lancaster Mennonite High School, and later studied pre nursing at Eastern Mennonite College. By the time Mim was done with her pre-nursing studies, her father had started a meat processing plant, Martin Meats, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Miriam liked to work in the office because she was outgoing, and loved talking to customers, and taking customer orders. Miriam went on to graduate from Reading Nursing School with an RN degree. She then took a job at Norristown State Hospital and it was there that she met James L. Yoder who was involved in a ministry outreach.
Mim and Jim married and raised their three sons, Garry Dean, Phillip Lee and Eric Todd in Harrisonville, Missouri. She supported her husband in the family business, Yoder’s Orchard, using her personable traits to make customers feel welcomed. When Miriam’s youngest was school age, she resumed her nursing career as a school nurse for the Pleasant Hill, Raymore-Peculiar and Harrisonville School systems. She later went on to serve as the Cass County Health Nurse. Mim was a devoted mother and grandmother, both her children and grandchildren brought her great joy. Eventually, she moved to the east coast and lived in Pennsylvania assisting her sister in operating a Slender You Salon. In 1988, she and her son, Eric, moved to Lynchburg, Virginia. She continued in her nursing profession by working at Bridges, an at-risk youth treatment center. She also opened her home to many college students and served as “Mom” to many appreciative boarders. In 1996, she moved back to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to live with her sister and worked several years as a hospice nurse. Years later she moved back to Lynchburg, Virginia where she lived for nine years. In 2009, she relocated back to Harrisonville.
Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by her son, Garry Yoder and a brother, Elmer Martin Jr.
Mim is survived by two sons, Phillip L. Yoder and Eric Todd Yoder and wife Sonja all of Harrisonville, Missouri; 6 grandchildren, Heather Weber, Amanda Yoder, Ashton Meyers, Kathryn Yoder, Julia Yoder and Eleonore Yoder; 3 great-grandchildren, Hunter Weber, Noah Weber and Samuel Meyers; 4 sisters, Gertrude Hollinger, Manheim, Pennsylvania, Anna Elizabeth Slaymaker, Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania, Lois J. Martin, Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Eunice Martin Keller, Manheim, Pennsylvania; other relatives and many friends.
Miriam was aptly named after the mother of Moses. She was a Godly woman who served the Lord, and loved her children. Miriam “Mim” Martin Yoder was ushered into the arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, at 9:30 PM, Monday, December 12, 2011.
A Celebration of Life Service was held Thursday, December 29, 2011 at the Harrisonville Community Church, Harrisonville, Missouri. Cremation.