Dr Raymond Joseph Duling

DULING MEIS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/20/2010 at 18:11:49

Woodbury County History 1984

Dr Raymond and Mrs Duling
By Dr Edward W Duling, Katherine Duling Hoffman, and Dr John L Duling

Raymond Joseph Duling was born in Sioux City, Iowa, July 17, 1898. He was the youngest son of Mathew and Gertrude Duling. After attending St Joseph Grade School and Trinity High School in Sioux City, he spent several years in a preparatory-seminary in Illinois. This enhanced his knowledge of the classics and foreign languages. He could speak in German and Latin and was able to understand Spanish and Greek.

Raymond served for a year in the Army has a hospital corpsman and upon his discharge, worked as a bookkeeper for The L G Everist Company.

Raymond met Evelyn Meis in the early 1920’s and on May 3, 1924, they were married. This marriage was to last until his death by drowning in Lake Okoboji on September 6, 1959. Ray and Evelyn Duling had four children: Doris Dianne, born 1926; Edward William, born 1928; Maurine, born 1930, and Evelyn, born 1931.

The parents of Evelyn (Mary Evelyn) were Dr and Mrs Edward William Meis. Dr Meis awas a practicing Internist in Sioux City. He provided encouragement and financial assistance to send Raymond to medical school. Raymond attended the University Of South Dakota Of Medicine and transferred to Creighton University for the last two years of schooling. He graduated second in his class of 72, in June, 1929. After graduation, Dr and Mrs Duling returned to Sioux City, where after his internship at St Joseph Hospital, he practiced medicine and surgery for 29 years. Dr Duling was a very busy family doctor and often was unable to be at home with his family.

He delivered more than 5,000 babies during his career and spent an average of four hours a day making house calls, usually after he left his office at 5:30 p.m. He once said that he had been on every street in Sioux City and in half the houses. These were the times when there wasn’t any health insurance and doctors had to take no pay or payments other than money, so the Duling children wer always getting the surprise pets of goats and poultry.

Though he had a busy schedule, Dr Duling usually attended Mass every morning and was a faithful member of the choir. He frequently sang funeral masses for people he did not know, in a church which contained only the priest and himself.

Mrs Duling was born, Mary Evelyn Meis, on September 6, 1901, in Holy Cross, Dubuque County, Iowa. She attended grade school in Sioux City and graduated from Sioux City High School in June of 1920. She attended St Mary’s College for two years and then pursued her first love, oil painting, until she was married. Many of her paintings are still displayed in the Sioux City area.

The Duling family moved to the home of Mrs Duling’s paents on the corner of 38th and Nebraska Streets, following the death of Dr Meis in 1932, and lived there until 1962. At that time the house was sold and Mrs Duling moved into a smaller house next door where she lived until her death in the hospital at Spirit Lake, Iowa, on September 7, 1972.

Dienne Duling, having attended Blessed Sacrament and Central High Schools in Sioux City, continued her advanced education at the University of Iowa, where she was graduated. She married Dr Donald Rodawig in 1948, and the couple moved to Spirit Lake, Iowa, where Don as been in professional business with his father, also an M.D. Dienne and Don have seven children: Donald F Rodawig III, born 1949; Mary Rodawig, born 1951, a nurse who lives in Tempe, Arizona; Ann Rodawig, born 1953, a nurse in Spirit Lake; Jane (Rodawig) Harmer, born 1955, married to Don Harmer; Elizabeth Rodawig, born 1961, a student at the University of Iowa; David Rodawig, born 1962, and Dan Rodawig, born 1963, both students at the University of Iowa. With seven children, there are bound to abound many grandchildren!

Dr Edward W Duling, having attended Blessed Sacrament and Trinity High School, completed his college attending the University of South Dakota at Vermillion and optometric college. He has been involved not only as an optometrist throughout the state of Iowa, but aslo as an owner and investor. As former owner of Duling Optical, a network of optical stores in the Midwest, he retired for a while to the luxury of his ranch, family, animals, whatever. (He adores animals! Always has! So that is why he has horses and dogs and. . . !0 But then he decided to go back to work, and now he owns Vision Optical in Sioux City. His wife, Darlene (Barcal), attended North Junior and Central High Schools. She was involved with dancing and ballet at the Sioux City School of Music with Hazel Berg. She and Dr Edward were married in 1952, and they have four children: Lesley (Duling), born 1954, Mrs Christopher Russell of Phoenix, Arizona; Kevin J Duling, born 1956, of Sioux City; Daniel F Duling, born 1958, of Sioux City; and Raymond Joseph Duling II, born 1962, of Sioux City.

Maurine M Duling, a trained artist, married John Paul Byers, of Mount Vernon, Pennsylvania, in Sioux City, August 25, 1956. John is a NASA scientist, and he and Maurine live in Houston, Texas. They have four children: John P Byers, Jr, born 1958, married in 1983, to Susan Lee Dees; Julienne Byers, born 1960; Edward Dean, born 1963; and Kirk Patrick, born 1966, all of Houston. Maurine attended Blessed Sacrament and Central High School and has taken considerable advanced lessons and academic training.

Evelyn Rae Duling attended Blessed Sacrament and Central High School in Sioux City. She married Harold E Momsen, a Vernon Division Manage, of Everly, Iowa, on September 11, 1954. They have four children: Laurie Rae (Momsen), born 1956, Mrs James Murray of Emmetsburg, Iowa; Amy Marie Momsen, born 1958, of La crosse, Wisconsin; Mark Joseph Momsen, born 1961, of Austin, Texas; and Thomas Edward Momsen, born 1965, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Evelyn and Harold have two grandchildren; a son and a daughter of Laurie and James Murray of Emmetsburg, Iowa.