Cecil Dale Vredenburgh 1918 - 2018

VREDENBURGH, MAGNET, LUNDEEN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/28/2018 at 18:07:38

Sioux City Journal
19 June 2018

Sergeant Bluff, formerly Moorhead, Iowa

Cecil Dale Vredenburgh, of Sergeant Bluff, formerly of Moorhead, passed away Sunday, June 17, 2018, having recently celebrated the milestone of his 100th birthday.

Services will be 10 a.m. Thursday at Rush Family Care Service in Onawa, Iowa, with Chad Springer officiating. Burial will be in Spring Valley Cemetery, rural Moorhead. Visitation will be 9 a.m. until service time Thursday at the funeral home.

Dale, the only child of Rex DeWard Vredenburgh and Elsie Mae (Magnet) Vredenburgh, was born in 1918 and lived in Monona County, Iowa, his entire life. Dale grew up on a farm and attended a one-room country school until the eighth grade. He fondly remembered riding a pony over 7,000 miles back and forth to school until graduating from Moorhead High School in 1935. After graduation, he worked on his father's farm and raised purebred Belgian draft horses.

In 1939, he married Margaret Ellen Lundeen of Missouri Valley, Iowa. They purchased their own farm in the Loess Hills southwest of Moorhead. In the early 1950s, Dale began leasing out his farm and went to work as a supervisor of cement finishing crews for a company that built cement grain elevators in western Iowa. He would later form the Vredenburgh and Wessell Construction Company with Darrell Wessell, bought a lumberyard in Soldier, Iowa, and specialized in remodeling. Dale returned to farming and ranching in the mid-1960s and ran a Charolais and Longhorn cow and calf operation until he and Margaret retired. They sold the farm and moved into Moorhead in 1993.

Dale was always actively involved in community activities. He was an elder and active member of Moorhead Christian Church, a past Master of the Masonic Elk Lodge 586, and the first Scout Master of Boy Scout Troop 33 in Moorhead. Throughout his life, he always enjoyed farming, competing in horse shows, raising cattle, and hunting and fishing. In his later years, Dale was passionate about flower gardening and raising cacti from seeds, and often shared his garden vegetables with his neighbors. At the age of 97, Dale moved to Floyd Place, a senior living community in Sergeant Bluff.

He is survived by his two sons, Larry Dale Vredenburgh and his wife, Mary of Arvada, Colo., and James Martin Vredenburgh and his wife, MaryJo of Sergeant Bluff; seven grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; a cousin, John "Jack" Wax of Sergeant Bluff; and sisters-in-laws, nieces, nephews, and their families.

Dale was preceded in death by his parents; his loving wife of 72 years, Margaret Ellen; and his daughter, Janis Hope Thomsen.