William “Bill” Robert Sickels 61 of Birmingham passed away on Monday September 27, 2021 at Van Buren County Hospital. Graveside service will be at 11:00 AM Friday October 1, 2021 at Maple Hill Cemetery East of Birmingham with Leon Surbaugh officiating. Lunch will follow the service at Birmingham City Park, guests are invited to bring a dish if they would like. Memorials to EveryStep Hospice may be left at the graveside service or mailed to the family at P.O. Box 143, Birmingham, IA 52535.
Bill was born on December 22, 1959 in Ottumwa to John William Sr. and Barbara Jean Thompson Sickels. He spent his childhood on the family farm south of Douds and attended Douds Elementary and graduated from Van Buren High School in the class of 1978. Shortly after graduation he met Lorie Ann Crafton and they were married on September 26, 1981 at the Birmingham Methodist Church. Bill and Lorie lived in the Birmingham and Stockport areas. He loved working on cars and was a mechanic for much of his life. He started his career at Hervey Implement in Keosauqua where he worked for 16 years. He later was a mechanic at Smithburg Automotive and then at RPM Automotive both in Fairfield. He then went into the manufacturing business and worked at Barker Wire in Keosauqua and then at Dexter in Fairfield until he was diagnosed with cancer and was forced to stop working. Bill enjoyed fishing with family and friends, hunting morel mushrooms, hunting, jigsaw puzzles, old cars were his passion, most of all he loved spending time with family and friends especially his granddaughter, Teagan.
Left to cherish his memory are his mother, Barbara of Eldon and wife Lorie of Birmingham, a son, Dustin of Birmingham, three brothers, John Sickels Jr (Rhonda) of Muscatine, David Sickels (Trudy) of Stuart, Iowa and Murl Sickels (Jennifer) of Gentry, Arkansas, three sisters, Deborah Surbaugh (Leon) of Krum, Texas, Linda Bates of Des Moines and Kaye Gilbert (Stuart)of Stockport and a granddaughter, Teagan Sickels of Birmingham. He was preceded in death by his father, John Sickels Sr., father-in-law, Leonard Crafton and mother-in-law, Shirley Crafton.