Durr, Dena 1916-2007

DURR, LOVIG, RASMUSSEN, KEPLER, SMITH

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 10/12/2010 at 10:56:38

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; Mar, 29, 2007

DENA DURR

Dena Durr, 91, of Grinnell died Saturday, March 24, 2007, at St. Francis Manor.

A funeral service was held Thursday, March 29, at Smith Funeral Home with the Rev. John Reynolds Jr. of Brooklyn-Malcom Presbyterian Churches officiating. Interment was in Pleasant Township Cemetery, rural Ewart. Memorials may be made to the Malcom Presbyterian Church Stained Glass Window Fund in care of Smith Funeral Home. Online condolences may be submitted to the Durr family on the funeral home's website, www.smithfh.com

She was born Feb. 14, 1916, near Stanhope, Iowa, the eldest of ten children of Ingvald and Ragna Lovig Rasmussen. The family moved to Grinnell during the winter, using a toboggan. She was educated in rural schools near her home. She graduated from Grinnell High School in the mid-1930s, then took normal training classes to become a teacher after which she taught in rural schools in the Grinnell area. She was married on Feb. 3, 1940, to Floyd Cyrus Durr in Lancaster, Mo. The couple made ther home east of Ewart where they farmed from 1940 until the spring of 1959. They continued to farm southeast of Grinnell and south of Malcom until their retirement in 1983.

She dedicated much of her life to assisting others, and helped raise many of her brothers and sisters, teaching the value of love, honesty, discipline, hard work and the importance of a good education. Her special pleasures included sewing, quilting, tending to her flower and vegetable gardens and baking. She also canned most of her family's food.

She is survived by her children, Marie Durr of Grinnell; Tom Durr of Colo; Helen Kepler of Huxley; Charles Durr of Grinnell and Jim Durr of Baxter; 13 grandchildren; 24 great grandchildren and her brothers, Bob, Mark and John Rasmussen. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Floyd Durr on Dec. 31, 1990; her brothers, Sevrin, Terye, George and Gus Rasmussen and her sisters Anna Rasmussen who died in infancy and Marie Smith.