GAFFRI, Grace M. (LOMEN)

GAFFRI, LOMEN, VAN HELTON, KERTSON

Posted By: Sharon R. Becker (email)
Date: 10/26/2017 at 19:29:00

Obituary ~ Grace M. (Lomen) Gaffri
November 28, 1849 ~ January 20, 1924

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
January 03, 1998

MASON CITY — Grace M. Gaffri, 105, died Thursday (Jan. 1, 1998) at Good Shepherd Health Care Center.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Fjelstul Funeral Home, Decorah, with the Rev. Paul Lionberger officiating. Burial will be in the Springfield Lutheran Cemetery.

Visitation will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at the Fjelstul Funeral Home, Decorah.

Grace Gaffri was born April 30, 1892, in rural Decorah. Her mother passed away when Grace was five months old. She and her two-year-old brother were cared for by her father. Grace graduated from high school in 1915, and taught in a rural school for five years. She attended summer school at Upper Iowa Fayette College. Playing the piano was her most enjoyable recreation.

She was married in July 1919, and her husband passed away the following March, 1920, during the flu epidemic.

In 1923, she came to Mason City, attended Hamilton Business College and was a dictaphone operator at Standard Oil for three years. She moved on to the Park Hospital Clinic, serving in the same capacity to the doctors there for 37 years.

Grace never drove a car, and walking was her only mode of transportation. Perhaps this might help to explain her longevity.

Grace was always interested in local current news events and TV. Due to her failing vision, she was restricted to reading the black headlines in the newspaper.

Grace was very emphatic that KCMR Radio was her favorite, and spent many enjoyable hours listening. She knew the names of all the announcers.

In spite of the adversity in her life, Grace was quick to assert that her religious faith and sheer determination guided her through difficult times.

Survivors include two brothers, Erlin R. and Lorraine Lomen, and Oscar M. Lomen, all of Decorah; nephews, Edgar and Alice Lomen of Mason City, Richard and Doris Lomen of Waukon, Donald and Barbara Lomen of Decorah, David and Connie Lomen of Tucson, Ariz., Dale and Marilyn Lomen of Cape Coral, Fla.; nieces, Nancy Lomen of Decorah, and Dorothy and Steve Van Helten of Waverly; and 11 great-nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; one sister, Eleanor Kertson; and one brother, Herbert Lomen.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2017