Margaret Ann Gereke (2022)

BARNES, FISHBURN, GEREKE

Posted By: Shirley Keating
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:04:40

Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Iowa
April 24, 2022

Margaret Ann Gereke

Des Moines - On Thursday, December 16, 2021, our beloved friend Margaret Ann Gereke – Maggie – passed away at age 73.

Maggie was born on October 6, 1948, to Gene Gereke and Claudeen Fishburn Gereke, both natives of Kansas. She was a beauty, with a knock-you-out smile, a megaphone laugh, and a gorgeous pair of legs that served her well as a Valley High School cheerleader, party dancer specializing in the twist, and softball player extraordinaire. Keen to have a college education, she attended the University of Iowa but majored in playing bridge. She owned a quirky and unpredictable sense of fun and humor that endeared her to even the grumpiest cynic. Maggie also had a penchant for and irrational love of small barking dogs; and, inexplicably, was also "parent" to one of the most annoying and disrespectful cockatoos (Larry) that ever graced – and disgraced – a household.

It is not a cliché to state that Maggie was loved by all. She actually embodied the qualities that are so often written on the back of high school photos: nice, sweet, kind, fun, pretty. She was lucky enough to have an abundance of friends. In her mid-years, after a particularly spirited Class of '67 high school reunion, she suggested that some of those old friends form a Canasta group, despite the unfamiliarity of that pastime to almost everyone. No one remembers ever playing an actual game, but the concept of the Canasta Girls prevailed, and Maggie and Company embarked on many adventures, not all of which can be recounted here.

It is testimony to her big heart that Maggie chose to foster a child, Steven Barnes, from the time he was a newborn until he was well into his teens. She shouldered this responsibility without assistance and poured her time and modest treasure into that effort as long as her health permitted. Maggie faced many challenges in her life, but she undertook this one out of love.

After being diminished by Parkinson's disease and COPD, Maggie spent her last years in a care facility in Winterset, and her friends have been told she died of Covid 19. These "Canasta Girls/Valley Girls" mourn her loss deeply.

Maggie was preceded in death by her parents and grandparents and by her brother George. In addition to her loving friends, she is survived by her foster son Steven, by her beloved niece and nephews and their children, and by her former sister-in-law Helene Gereke.

Maggie was cremated. There will be no service in the Des Moines area; but her friends will gather with laughter and tears in her memory, and in the memory of the time when we all were young together.

Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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