Jean E. (Schwichtenberg) GRUIS

BLAU, GRUIS, SCHWICHTENBERG, REEMSTA

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 4/16/2009 at 11:43:47

April 15, 1999
Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette

THORNTON - Jean E. Gruis, 79, of Thornton, died Tuesday (April 13, 1999) at the Hampton Care Center, Hampton. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 16, at the Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. Fourth St., Clear Lake, with the Rev. Curtis De Vance, of the United Methodist Church of Klemme, officiating. Interment will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, Mason City. Visitation will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel. The family suggests memorials be given in memory of Jean E. Gruis to the Alzheimers Association "Heart" of Iowa Chapter, 205 South Walnut, Ames, Iowa 50010.

Jean was born April 4, 1920, at Goodell, daughter of David and Carrie (Reemsta) Schwichtenberg. She attended rural school at Twin Lake Township No. 2, and attended and graduated from Garner High School in 1938. Following high school, she attended A.I.B. Business College in Des Moines. Jean married Harvey Gruis at Columbus, Kan., in 1946. After her husband, Harvey, was released from the Veterans Hospital at Springfield, Mo., they moved to a farm east of Klemme in 1949. Harvey died March 18, 1968. After his death, Jean stayed on the farm and managed the farm property. She served on the Klemme Co-op Grain Elevator Board for two terms. Jean was an active, energetic person and, besides the responsibility of her farm operation, enjoyed her cottage on Clear Lake, dancing, dining out and taking many trips. Jean entered the Hampton Care Center in February of 1991 as an Alzheimer's patient and remained there until her death.

She is survived by two brothers and their wives, John and Frances Schwichtenberg of rural Clear Lake, and Jesse and Daisy Schwichtenberg of Kanawha; eight nephews; and eight nieces. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Harvey, in 1968; one sister, Viola Blau; and sister-in-law Marlys Schwichtenberg. Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. Fourth St., Clear Lake.