Marguerite Elaine (Larson) Martens (1919-2015)

MARTENS, LARSON, SCHARFF, BENNETT

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 11/26/2015 at 21:19:21

Obituary from Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello, Iowa.

Elaine Martens age 95, died Thursday, October 29, 2015 at St. Luke’s Unity Point Hospital, Cedar Rapids, following a brief illness.

Funeral services will be held 11:00 Thursday morning, November 5, 2015, at the St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Monticello where friends may call after 9:30. Interment will be in the Badger Hill Cemetery, Gladbrook, Iowa at 11:00 on Friday. Thoughts, Memories and Condolences may be left at www.goettschonline.com.

Surviving are 3 children, Martha (Larry) Scharff, Monticello, John (Linda) Martens, Ames, Ann (Stephen) Bennett, Littleton, CO., 8 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband George and 12 older siblings.

Marguerite Elaine Martens was born December 11, 1919 in Palestine Township, Story County, Iowa. She was the daughter of Reinert and Martha Larson, Holland. Elaine graduated from the Kelly, Iowa schools and completed her education with a Home Economics Degree from Iowa State University at Ames. Elaine married Geoge Nebendahl Martens in 1942 at her sister’s home in Ames. George died 6 years later in 1948. Elaine taught home economics in the Dinsdale, Iowa before becoming an Iowa State University Home Economist for 15 years. She then became a dorm mother at Cornell College in Mount Vernon. She was the director at Shesler Hall in Sioux City and then the Administrator of the Cookson Home in West Branch until she retired in 1989. Elaine lived in Estherville, and Ames before moving to Monticello in 2010. She had been active in the United Methodist Church and always participated in the quilting and bible study groups.