Groetken, Mrs. Phil (Mildred) 1918-1997

GROETKEN, GRAU, HARMS, GAMAGE, PETERSEN, VANDENBERG, LEHNHOFF, SCHULTZ

Posted By: Janet Schuldt, Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/16/2010 at 16:36:58

Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa, USA July 21, 1997

Le Mars, Iowa - Mildred L. Groetken, 78, of Le Mars died Saturday July 19, 1997, at the Floyd Valley Hospital in Le Mars following a lengthy illness.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. James Catholic Church in Le Mars, with the Rev. Richard Ries officiating. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery at Le Mars. Visitation will be after 3 p.m. today, with an Altar Society rosary at 4 p.m., a scriptural wake service at 7:30 p.m. and a Catholic Daughters of America rosary at 8 p.m. at the Feuerstein Funeral Home in Le Mars.

Mrs. Groetken was born September 21, 1918, near Brunsville, Iowa, the daughter of Herman J. and Lillian (Grau) Harms. She was raised near Brunsville and attended elementary school there. She graduated from Le Mars Central High School. She was employed at First State Bank in Brunsville.

She married Phil Groetken on February 19, 1938, in Le Mars. The couple farmed and operated a trucking business on their farm in Elgin Township. They moved to Le Mars in 1968.

She was a member of St. James Catholic Church, the Altar Society, the Catholic Daughters of America and the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women. She had been a past president of the St. Joseph’s Alter Society in Struble, Iowa. She was also a member of the Sweet Adeline’s and did volunteer work with the Northwest Iowa and National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Survivors include her husband; three daughters, Phyllis Gamage of Indianapolis, Indiana, Shirley Petersen of Mitchell, South Dakota and Debra and her husband Scott Vandenberg of Tripp, South Dakota, a son and his wife, Phil and Shelly of Kansas City, Missouri; 11 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren, two sisters, Wilma Lehnhoff of Milford, Iowa and Genevieve Schultz of Cabazon, California and a brother Willis Harms of Lake Park, Iowa.

She was preceded in death by her parents, a son, Jim; a daughter, Barbara Groetken, a grandson in infancy and a son-in-law, Harry Gamage.