Gruening, Susan Ann Hicks (1903-2003)

GRUENING, HICKS, WHITMAN, LAFRENZ, GRIMMER, BIRKELAND, LAWRENCE, JOHNSON, JORDAN, CLAYTON, LANGDON

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 3/12/2023 at 09:35:39

Daily Freeman Journal
Webster City, Iowa
Monday, October 6, 2003

Susan Gruening, 100, of Webster City, died Monday, September 29, 2003 at Crestview Senior Living. Graveside services were held at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, October 2, 2003 at the Evergreen Cemetery in Clarion, with Rev. Candace Adams officiating. Arrangements were made with the Foster Funeral Home.

Susan Ann Hicks, daughter of Oscar and Madge Whitman Hicks, was born August 21, 1903 in Lake Benton, Minnesota. She was the second of ten children. She graduated from Lake Benton High School and A.I.B. at Des Moines and was employed as a secretary at the Wood Brothers Threshing Machine Company in Des Moines. On December 24, 1927 she married William Edward Gruening in Des Moines. The couple resided in Des Moines, Decatur, IL., Columbus and Cincinnati, OH. and Chicago, IL., during her husband's career as an industrial engineer. In 1950, they moved to a farm north of Blairsburg. They retired in 1963. Mr. Gruening died September 17, 1984. She resided on her farm until 1991 when she moved to Crestview Senior Living.

She was a member of the United Presbyterian Church in Clarion, an Eastern Star member and a member of the Clarion Senior Citizens Club. She also enjoyed knitting, playing cards, cooking, watching football and was an avid gardener. Most of all she enjoyed being a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, a passion enjoyed by her family.

Mrs. Gruening is survived by son and daughter-in-law, Jacques (Jack) and Katharine Gruening of Ames; grandchildren, Elizabeth LaFrenz of Plymouth, MN.; James Gruening of Marshalltown; William Edward Gruening III of Glenwood Springs, CO.; Lainie Grimmer of Santa Fe, N.M.; Gigi Birkeland of LaGrange, IL.; 8 great-grandchildren; sisters, Ethel Lawrence of Lexington, KY; Arlene Johnson of Sierra Vista, AZ.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by son and daughter-in-law, William Edward Jr. and Helen Jean Gruening; brothers, Clyde, Franz, Robert and Donald Hicks, sisters, Madaline Jordan, Dorothy Clayton and Florence Langdon.