Tena (Koenen) SMIT

SMIT, KOENEN, DIRKS, LUBKEMAN, MEYER, HUGHES, MOZINGO, FOSS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/10/2009 at 09:21:43

SHEFFIELD- Tena Smit, 96, was called to her heavenly home on Tuesday (May 12, 2009). She passed away at the Sheffield Care Center where she had been a resident for about 15 months. Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Friday, May 15, at Zion Reformed Church, rural Sheffield, with the Rev. Art Zewert presiding. Interment will be at Hillside Cemetery, Sheffield. Visitation will be 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at Retz-Grarup Funeral Home, Sheffield.

Tena (Koenen) Smit was born in Meservey, on Oct. 28, 1912, the daughter of Harm and Herma (Dirks) Koenen. She was baptized as an infant in the Reformed Church in Meservey and graduated from Meservey High School in 1931. She married Henry Smit on July 22, 1936, in her grandmother, Thada Dirk's, home in Meservey. Tena's uncle, the Rev. Herman Dirks, performed the wedding ceremony. Louis and Tena Dirks were best man and matron of honor. In 1941 Henry and Tena moved to Sheffield. They had nine children, six sons and three daughters. Tena was a member of Zion Reformed Church, rural Sheffield. She was active in Senior Citizen's for a number of years, and the Sheffield Hillside Cemetery Society. She enjoyed playing cards, embroidering, reading, watching the birds on her feeder and she loved spending time with her family. She always served tea around 3 p.m. each day, and her family enjoyed sharing this time with her.

She is survived by her children, Duane (Ilene) Smit of Sheffield, Delbert (Carolyn) Smit of Sheffield, Gene (Laurie) Smit of Sheffield, Elaine (Don) Lubkeman of Clear Lake, Mavis (Gordon) Meyer of Latimer, and Diane (Ted) Hughes of Sheffield, her daughters-in-law, Patricia (Don) Smit and Sharon (Dale) Smit of Sheffield. She had 11 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Henry in 1968; her son, Don, in 1979, her son, Harold, in 1993, her son, Dale, in 2003; her sisters Ida Smit, Thada (Tillie) Mozingo and Hermina Foss; her brother, Herman Koenen; and her parents, Harm and Herma (Dirks) Koenen. Retz-Grarup Funeral Home.

Mason City Globe Gazette, Iowa
May 14, 2009