Gail Benjamin Groom 1912-2002

GROOM RILEY JOHNSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 3/18/2011 at 20:00:24

Sioux City Journal
22 July 2002

Gail Benjamin Groom, 89, of Sioux City, formerly of Moville, Iowa, died Friday, July 19, 2002, at Sunrise Retirement Community.

Services will be 11 a.m. Tuesday at Trinity Lutheran Church of Moville, with the Rev. Michael Kroona officiating. Burial will be in Arlington Township Cemetery in Moville. Visitation will be 4 to 7 p.m. today at Christy-Smith McCulloch Chapel in Moville.

Mr. Groom was born Dec. 19, 1912, in Monona County, Iowa, the son of Raymond and Edith (Riley) Groom. He graduated from South Sioux City public schools. He moved with his family to rural Dakota County, Neb., in 1920, and then with his family to Cushing, Iowa, in 1934.

He married Ruth Johnson on June 23, 1945, at Dalesburg Lutheran Church, rural Vermillion, S.D. The couple farmed near Cushing until 1974, when he retired. They moved to Moville in 1976 and then to Sioux City in 1996.

He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church of Moville and a former member of St. John's Lutheran Church of Cushing, where he was a past trustee and building committee board member .

He was a Cornhusker football fan. He loved to travel, and traveled 45 of the 50 state in the U.S., all of Canada, 11 countries in central Europe and Mexico. He also loved to fish, hunt pheasants and play golf.

Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Barbara Groom of Sioux City, and Carol and her husband, Manfred Wunderlich of Omaha; a sister, Irene Groom of Sioux City; three grandchildren, David, Amanda and Julie; and a great-grandchild, Mabel.

He was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, Raymond and Delmar Groom; and two sisters, Thelma Groom and Gladys Krager.

Memorials may be directed to Hospice of Siouxland or Trinity Lutheran Church of Moville.