Emmet Elmer Gaunitz - 1910-1990

GAUNITZ, STEIBER, JOHNSON, THORPE, FEUERHELM, PETERS

Posted By: Connie Ellis (email)
Date: 7/20/2011 at 17:07:29

SOURCE: Waukon, Iowa WAUKON DEMOCRAT February 15, 1990
Contributor: Connie Ellis (Not related)

Lifetime area resident Emmet Elmer Gaunitz, age 79, died Tuesday, February 13, 1990 at the Good Samaritan Center in Waukon, Iowa. Services were set for 1:30 p.m. Friday, February 16 at the United Methodist Church in Lansing, Iowa with the Rev. Tom Mattson officiating. Burial will be in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Lansing, Iowa with Martin Funeral Home of Waukon, Iowa in charge of the arrangements. Casket bearers will be Jeffrey Gaunitz, Gregory Gaunitz, Richard Gaunitz, Randy Gaunitz, Brian Feuerhelm, Monte Thorpe, Tony Darling, and Tommy Vater. Honorary pallbearers will be Leslie Steiber, Harlan Steiber, Bernard Steiber, Clair Vater, Ray Alexander, Norman Reeves, Alvin Schultz, and William Gaunitz IV.

Emmet was born May 20, 1910 in LaFayette Township Allamakee County, Iowa to William and Lydia (Steiber) Gaunitz. He attended rural elementary school near Thompson's Corners and graduated from Lansing, Iowa High School. On June 2, 1931 he married Martha Johnson at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. In 1965 he moved to Lansing from the farm where he lived most of his life. He had been a resident of Good Samaritan for the last month. He worked with the AAA and did a lot of early conservation planning and surveying. During World War II, he sold war bonds. Emmet helped supply building materials for the Evangelical Methodist Church in Lansing, Iowa by helping tear down an old church near Thompson's Corners and hauling the usable lumber to Lansing. He was a member of the United Methodist Church in Lansing where he was a long-time usher, the Farm Bureau and the Farmers Union.

Preceding him in death were his parents; 2 brothers, Edwin Gaunitz, Charles Gaunitz, 3 sisters, Selma Peters, Martha Peters, Florence Gaunitz, and Myrtle Gaunitz.

Emmet is survived by his wife, Martha; 2 daughters, LaVonne (Zane) Thorpe of Dubuque, Iowa and Ruth (Lee) Feuerhelm of Lansing, Iowa; 2 sons, Emmett Gaunitz, Jr. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Richard "Dick" Gaunitz of Lansing, Iowa; 10 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren; and a brother, William Gaunitz of Pompano Beach, Florida.