June Ericson Kaser

KASER, ERICSON, PETERSON

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart (email)
Date: 2/22/2006 at 19:59:17

JUNE KASER, Winterset

Winterset Madisonian
December 1, 1982

Services for June Kaser, 81, a prominent Winterset resident who helped found the Winterset Art Center and had a strong interest in the Madison County Historical Society, were held Today (Wednesday) at 1 p.m. at the First Christian Church with the Rev. Wayne Green officiating.

Mrs. Kaser died Nov. 28 at the Madison County Memorial Hospital of cancer after a long illness. Burial was in the Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines.

She was born in Des Moines, the daughter of Frank and Emma Peterson Ericson, and grew up there. She graduated from East High School and Iowa State University, Ames, and after graduation from ISU, she was employed as a draftsman with the Iowa State Highway Commission in Ames.

On Aug. 4, 1923 she was married to John D. Kaser in Clinton, and was employed as a bookkeeper for Kaser Construction Co., while living in Adel. The Kasers moved to Winterset in the early 1940s and purchased the Dr. Bevington home and surrounding farm ground. They raised black Angus cattle.

In past years, Mrs. Kaser had the opportunity to be a world-wide traveler to such places as South America, Europe and the Far East. She was a member of the Associated Artists of Central Iowa, the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa Watercolor Society, Amateur Iowa Artists, Terrace Hill Society and the National League of American Pen Women, Inc.

She was one of the founders and instigators of the Winterset Art Center and for many years, and, at the time of her death, a member of the board. She was a member of P. E. O. and was responsible for the design of the historical building. She was president of the historical society, and had hoped to make Winterset and the surrounding area an art colony similar to Grant Wood's Stone City.

Mrs. Kaser was named citizen of the year in 1981. According to a friend, her two-story home has been given to the historical society.

A survivor is a brother, Richard Ericson, Park Ridge, Ill. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents and another brother, Kenneth.