GESELL, Cleo Henrietta Bertha (nee Rieken) 1913-2003

GESELL, KRUGER, RIEKEN

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 2/2/2009 at 11:39:31

ELMA, HOWARD COUNTY, IOWA - Cleo Henrietta Bertha (Rieken Gessel, 90, of Elma, died of cancer under Hospice care in her daughter's home at 2205 Amherst Place, Charles City, on Friday, June 13, 2003.

Memorial services will be held 3:00 p.m. Saturday, June 28, 2003, at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Elma. A strong believer in research, Cleo's body was willed to Iowa City, with her eyes to be given to the Iowa Lions' Eye Bank so that two people can see.

Friends may call an hour prior to services at the church.

She loved flowers when she could see them and smell them, so she had requested no flowers at her memorial service.

Conway-Kolbet Funeral Home in Elma is in charge of arrangements.

Cleo Henrietta Bertha (Rieken) Gesell was born April 17, 1913, the daughter of Bill and Dora (Kruger) Rieken on their farm seven miles south of Riceville. As the oldest of three girls, she grew up hunting, fishing, trapping, and helping her dad work on the farm. She was united in marriage to Ray Gesell on Feb. 28, 1937. They farmed in the northwest section of Chickasaw County until Ray's death in 1970. Cleo moved to Elma in 1981. She made many friends working as a cook at the 11th Street Chatauqua in Charles City. After having trouble falling, she lived with her daughter and family in rural Charles City from the summer of 2000 until she broke her hip in the December of 2002. Her subsequent care at the Colonial Manor in Elma was comforted by the wonderful staff and her visiting friends and relatives. After a short diagnostic stay at Mercy Medical Center in New Hampton, she was brought home to her daughter's family. A week of care supported by Hospice saw Cleo peacefully breathe her last as God took her spirit into his loving arms.

Cleo valued learning, telling her daughters to get their education under their belts before they got interested in boys! She exemplified her values by always reading and trying new interests. The piano she learned to play on was bought with the muskrat she trapped. She raised exotic geese and ducks, roses, and violets. She took on the challenge of learning to bake and can with such expertise that she won ribbons at the Cattle Congress and State Fair. Her most prestigious awards were winning the Sweepstakes (baked the best white, whole wheat, and rye bread) in the breads division at State in '61 and '62. Wedding cakes for relatives and friends are some of their special memories. She loved wedding photography. She was a member of the Deerfield Chicks, a women's club she nicknamed the "Slick Chicks." Her long-time involvement in the Ladies Aid of St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Elma enabled her to share her quilts with Lutheran World Relief. She belonged to the 50-mile swimming club at the Charles City YMCA and adored sharing her love of swimming with the school kids who would come from Elma to learn at the Y. She believed in making as much use as she could of what God had given her.

She will be sadly missed by daughter Mary (Gene) Schrandt; grandson Bill Schrandt of rural Charles City; two granddaughters: Julie (Todd) Van Aken, great-grandchildren Nikolas, Katelen, Brandon, and Cody Van Aken of Dover, N.H., and Nancy Ruksznis, also of Dover, N.H.; and son-in-law Richard Ruksznis of Arlington, Va.

Cleo was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her daughters Judy (Gesell) Ruksznis, Sandy Gesell, and stillboorn Susan Gesell; and two sisters Neva (Rieken Buchholtz and Opal Rieken.