Radke, Dorothy (1924-2016)

RADKE, JOHNSON, MITSDARFFER

Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 12/29/2016 at 16:38:42

Dorothy Radke
August 6, 1924 ~ October 26, 2016

Dorothy L. Radke, age 92, of Alta, passed away on Wednesday, October 26, 2016, at the Methodist Manor Retirement Community of Storm Lake.

The youngest of the three daughters of Gustav and Svea Louise Johnson, Dorothy Louise was born on August 6, 1924. She was baptized into the Christian Faith on October 5, 1924. On April 10th, 1938, she was confirmed. Both her baptism and confirmation took place at Trinity Lutheran Church in Alta, Iowa. Her funeral is at St. John’s Lutheran Church of rural Alta (Hanover) where she was a member for over sixty years

Even though the Great Depression negatively affected her family, she always talked about those years with fond memories. She, always, had a smile for everyone and genuinely loved meeting the friends of her family members. Her amazing memory will be sorely missed. She was able to keep all the generations and family trees organized in her mind. She knew others’ family trees as well as her own. In a different place and time, she would have been an amazing genealogist.

When Dorothy was thirteen years old, she watched in horror as her mother’s clothing caught on fire at the kitchen stove. Regrettably, her mother did not survive this catastrophe, and Dorothy found herself starting a lifetime of caring for her family. She considered everyone her responsibility. She raised and butchered, not only her own chickens, but for others as well. About ten years have come and gone since she, last, had chickens, and we all miss her fresh, family farm, free-range chickens. Normally not a trendsetter, she went organic before it became popular. Her sons, also, remember going to town on Saturday nights to sell eggs to Lou and Buggs. Dorothy graduated from Alta High School in 1941 and attended the American Institute of Business in Des Moines before returning to Alta to help her father. He lived with Dorothy, her husband, and the boys until his death in 1969.

At her older sister’s wedding, Dorothy met the quiet, yet dashing Marvin Radke, and soon thereafter, the sisters were married to brothers. Dorothy and Marvin married September 25, 1949, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Alta, Iowa. Their marriage lasted for sixty years before Marvin died in 2010.

Dorothy and Marvin had three sons, Bruce, David, and Richard. Richard still lives in the farmhouse where his dad and his dad’s siblings were born. Moreover, he, still, farms the 1907 Radke farm.

Dorothy enjoyed the simple things in life—interacting with family and friends, putting a full meal on the table, playing cards, and reading. The depression cemented her already strong work ethic, and she found more pleasure in working hard than sitting still. After she fell at about eighty years of age, her sons firmly insisted on her having an automatic washing machine and even a dryer on the ground floor. Moreover, they forbid her from hauling water and laundry to the basement. Her wringer washer still worked just fine, and she was not happy, especially when she found out that her wringer cleaned clothes better and the dryer didn’t leave clothes as fresh as her clothesline. Her death represents the end of her generation on both the Johnson and Radke sides. Those left to cherish her memory will never fully understand or appreciate how much the world changed in her lifetime or how satisfying she found a life of hard work, hand written letters, and domesticity.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Gustav and Louise; her sisters and their husbands, Ethel and Albert Mattson and Ruth and Arthur Radke; as well as by all of Marvin’s siblings.

Dorothy is survived by her three sons, Bruce (Diane Hoferman), of Clinton, Iowa, David (Anne Alderton), of Onawa, Iowa, and Richard, of Hanover, Iowa; her grandchildren, Chris (Courtney), of Iowa City, Josh (Stephanie), also of Iowa City, Meghann (Rob MacKinnon), of Minneapolis, Lanna Radke, of Kansas City, and Erhren (Matt) Mitsdarffer, of Kansas City; her great grandchildren, Owen, Hudson, Finley, Penelope, Jonas, Oliver, Miranda, Anthony, Natalie, Alyssa, and Sadie; and one sister-in-law, Marcella Radke, of Storm Lake.

A funeral service will be held on Monday, October 31, 2016, at 10:30 AM at St. John’s Lutheran Church of rural Alta (Hanover) with the Rev. John H. Schmidt officiating. Burial will be at the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery of rural Alta (Hanover). Visitation will be on Sunday, October 30, 2016, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at the Nicklas D. Jensen Funeral Home of Alta. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to St. John’s Lutheran Church of rural Alta (Hanover) or to the Methodist Manor Retirement Community of Storm Lake.

Copyright © 2016, Nicklas D. Jensen Funeral Homes

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