JOHNSON, Mary Henrietta (Citurs) 1913-2010
JOHNSON, CITURS, MCANNALLY
Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 4/2/2010 at 10:41:47
BURIED AT DEER CREEK CEMETERY
NORTHWOOD, IOWA - Mary Johnson, 96, of Northwood, died on Wednesday (March 31, 2010) at the Lutheran Retirement Home, Northwood, under the care of Hospice, after suffering a stroke a week earlier.
Funeral service will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 3, at Deer Creek Lutheran Church, Carpenter, with the Rev. Rose Marie Nack and Doreen Dorenkamp officiating. Burial will be in the Deer Creek Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 to 7:30 p.m. today, Friday, at Schroeder & Sites Funeral Home, Northwood.
Mary Henrietta Citurs was born on May 13, 1913, to Roman and Bessie (McAnally) Citurs, at the farm home east of Northwood. She was baptized on Oct. 26, 1913, at the Methodist Church, in Meltonville and confirmed at Deer Creek Lutheran Church in 1936.
Mary attended rural school and graduated from high school in Northwood with the class of 1931, where she took Normal Training classes, which permitted her to teach that fall at the age of 18. She taught in a rural school for four years before marrying Arthur Johnson on Sept. 15, 1935, at Deer Creek Lutheran Church. She and Arthur lived on the same farm from the time of their marriage until moving into Northwood in 1968, and she was still living in her home at the time of her death. Two sons, Allan and Neil, were born to this union.
Mary returned to teaching in 1946, first in rural schools then in Carpenter and Northwood. She retired in 1978. While teaching full time, Mary continued her education at Mason City Junior College, graduating in 1958 and later at Mankato, Minn., where she received her bachelors degree from Mankato State in 1969.
Her interests were varied, but especially being with people, especially young people and she was delighted when former students would stop and visit. She enjoyed reading before macular degeneration took her eyesight recently. She and Arthur loved to travel, and she continued this pastime until her death. She visited all 50 states as well as Europe and Canada with her sons. Last summer she traveled to Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. She and Arthur spent summers in northern Minnesota where she loved to fish and she was looking forward to spending time at the lake in Wisconsin with her son, Neil. She played cards and quilted, making quilts for seven of her grandchildren for wedding gifts, and she decorated cakes, many for previous students as well as her grandchildren.
Mary was on the Retirement Home Auxillary Board for years and was a longtime member of Farm Bureau. She was a faithful member of the Deer Creek Lutheran Church, serving in both the Naomi Circle and Deer Creek WELCA. She was a member of the Semper Fidelis study club, Worth Co. Retired Teachers, Senior Citizens and the Northwood Singles Club.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; two brothers, Ray and Leon; and one sister Esther Flatness.
Mary is survived by her sons and their wives, Allan and Carol of Northwood and Neil and Judy of Rice Lake, Wis.; nine grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.
Schroeder & Sites Funeral Home, 641-324-1121.
[Published in Globe Gazette online, April 2, 2010]
Mitchell Obituaries maintained by Sharyl Ferrall.
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