Louise Helene (Mandsager) Barker Thomas (1904-1995)

BARKER, GRANZOW, HOUSBY, LANTE, MANDSAGER, MATTHES, SHEELY, THOMAS

Posted By: Eileen Reed (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:42

September 12, 1904 --- March 18, 1995

Louise Helene Mandsager was born on September 12, 1904 on a farm in Humboldt County, Iowa, the daughter of Lars and Brita (Lante) Mandsager. She attended country school in the rural Thor area and graduated from the Eagle Grove High School with the class of 1923. She attended the Lutheran Bible Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota and graduated on May 22, 1925. She received her Normal training from the Eagle Grove Junior College and taught in the rural schools located in Humboldt County. She was united in marriage to Guy Barker of Clarion on October 8, 1930 in the East Side Lutheran Church in Eagle Grove. They spent most of their married life farming in the rural Hardy area. Following the death of her husband Guy Barker, on January 10, 1955, she and her daughter, Carol, moved into Eagle Grove where Louise operated a nursing home until her marriage to Floyd Thomas on January 12, 1962 in the Samuel Lutheran Church, Eagle Grove. They made their home in Rockwell, Iowa and spent many winters in Mesa, Arizona. Floyd Thomas died on September 28, 1987 and she entered the Rockwell Care Center in July of 1993.

She was a member of St. Peter Lutheran Church of Rockwell, the Women of the ELCA, Martha Circle, Federated Womens Club, Sew and Sew Club, and the Rockwell Senior Citizens Club.

Louise Helene Thomas died Saturday, March 18, 1995 at North Iowa Mercy Hospital, East Campus.

Survivors include her daughter, Carol Matthes and her husband, Dale, Rockwell; two stepsons, Wendell Thomas and wife, Dawn, and Richard Thomas and wife, Jo, all of Rockwell; one step-daughter, Dorothy Sheely and husband Don, Omaha, Neb.; 2 foster sons, Ronald Granzow and wife, Barbara, and Jack Housby and wife, Shirley, all of Des Moines; 15 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by both of her husbands, her parents, 5 brothers and 4 sisters.

Services for Louise Helene Thomas were held at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 21, 1995 at St. Peter Lutheran Church, Rockwell with the Reverend Joseph Miller officiating. Graveside services were at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21, 1995 at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, rural Hardy.

Grarup Funeral Home in Sheffield was in charge of arrangements.

Eagle Grove Eagle --- Eagle Grove, Iowa
March 22, 1995