Elaine F. Semken

SEMKEN, FRIEDRICHS, DUNMAN

Posted By: Megan Ciha (email)
Date: 12/29/2019 at 13:09:32

Elaine F. Semken, 83 longtime resident of Iowa City died Friday, December 27, 2019, at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City.

A time of visitation will be held from 5 to 7 pm Monday, December 30th, followed by services celebrating her life beginning at 7pm at Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service. Private services for burial will be held at Oakland Cemetery. In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made in her memory to Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center or CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank (formerly The Crisis Center). To share a thought, memory or condolence with Elaine’s family please visit the funeral home website @ www.gayandciha.com.

Elaine was the daughter of Albert ‘Bud’ Friedrichs and Alma ‘Scrap’ Dunman in Beeville, Texas, on July 23, 1936. Her mother died as a result of the birth and Bud was drafted into the Navy for WWII. As a result she was raised by her mother’s sister ‘Jimmie’ and her husband Joe Turpen of Eagle Pass, Texas. Much of her childhood was spent on small family ranches near Eagle Pass and Goliad, Texas. There were cattle, 10-gallon hats, oil barrel BBQ’s, branding irons, and of course rifles in the rear windows of pickups. Joe and Jimmie decided that Elaine should go to college (first in the family) and that she could go anywhere she wanted as long as it was the University of Texas in Austin. It was there that she met Holmes on a blind date. She believed they would marry after that very first date. Holmes had similar feelings and they married on August 31, 1957. Soon after, Elaine put her new "hubby" through a master’s degree at the University of Texas and later through a PhD at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by teaching elementary school. There was a stint in the service for Holmes during which the couple lived in Alexandria, Virginia, between degrees. While still living in Virginia, Holmes was employed by the Smithsonian to dig mammoths in Littleton, Colorado. Elaine followed along, spending the next two summers tent camping south of Littleton. The crew was delighted to have a real cook oversee the meals and the project supervisor was happy because the language was less colorful in camp.

When Holmes accepted employment at the University of Iowa in 1965 they moved to Iowa City. After both of their sons, Steven and David, started elementary school, Elaine began teaching day care during the mornings so that she could be home when the boys returned from school each day. Elaine was a gourmet cook: she even had an hors d'oeuvres business with a friend for a stint, and joined gourmet clubs. She had many interests: including investing, duplicate bridge, Sudoku, attending Hawkeye football games, and pets. She loved book club and would immerse herself in a mystery, regarding it as an adventure of the mind. She was a remarkably caring and loving daughter who did everything she could for her family wherever they may be, spending time with her parents when they needed her help the most. Her primary hobby was travel and she visited at least 51 different countries. She traveled with Jimmie and her cousins. She also enjoyed geology conferences because they invariably included field trips to remote areas. Elaine marveled on her trip to Yakutsk, Siberia. There she saw frozen mammoths and was especially pleased to handle large diamonds in the rough. On these trips she met many geologists and her home in Iowa became a welcoming spot for visiting scholars overcoming jet lag and for practicing English on their way to professional destinations. Many came with spouses. These good deeds were rewarded when she and Holmes were invited to stay with their guests around the world. She enjoyed travel in so many ways. She could sit on a park bench and strangers invariably would sit and talk. She was not a picky eater, and sought out ethnic foods. She liked to create her own trips and adventures.

A lover of birds, home, and family, she was at once a loyal wife and mother, but also a friend that others, including many University of Iowa students along the way came to trust and consider a second mother. As well, she loved her pets. As the saying goes, it was a lucky dog that lived in her house. They became like children including Button, Thunder, Patches, Charlie, Jenny, and Sassy. She is survived by her husband of sixty-two years, Holmes A. Semken, Jr.; her two sons, Steven H. Semken (wife, Ingrid), David A. Semken (wife, Cindy); grandson Daniel, granddaughter Fenna, and stepgranddaughter, Andrea; as well as her loving Corgi JJ.

Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service
 

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