Kathryn Marie (Raecker) HUNGERFORD

RAECKER, HUNGERFORD, BECKER, JOHNSON, SPARBY, MILLER, RENWICK, PITZEN, BAUER, ENGELHARDT, GAST, KUNTZ, COUNSELL, THOMPTO

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:56

January 2, 1927 ---- February 11, 2019

Kathryn Marie (Raecker) Hungerford, formerly of Osage, Iowa passed away on Monday morning, February 11, 2019, at the Good Samaritan Society in St. Ansgar, Iowa, of natural causes. She was 92.

Services are planned for 10:30 a.m. on Friday, February 15, 2019 at the First United Methodist Church in Osage, with Pastor Julie Schubert and Pastor Gary Gilbert officiating. Visitation from 5:00-7:00 p.m. on Thursday, at Champion-Bucheit Funeral Home in Osage. Burial will at the Osage Cemetery.

Kathryn was born on January 2, 1927, in Meservey, Iowa, to Garfield and Mary (Becker) Raecker. After graduation from Meservey High School in 1944, she attended North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, for two years. A handsome sailor from Manly, Iowa, James Eldon Hungerford, with whom Kathryn had become acquainted at church youth gatherings, surprised her at her dorm one evening. After a long-distance relationship via U.S. mail, the two became engaged and were married on September 12, 1946. After living for five years on the Hungerford family farm near Manly, the couple moved to their farm north of Osage where they farmed and raised their family.

In 1990, Kathryn and Eldon built a new home in Osage. Eldon passed away in 2009. Kathryn continued to live in their home until she moved to Good Samaritan in St. Ansgar in January, 2018. Married for 62 1/2 years, they are the parents of six children, grandparents of ten, and great-grandparents of twelve.

As a 67-year member of the First United Methodist Church, Kathryn taught Sunday School and Bible School, was a member and officer of UMW, and played the organ and piano for church services and activities. As a farm wife, she was a member of Farm Bureau Women. Kathryn took great pride in caring for her family and home, cooking delicious meals and baking many dozens of cookies.

Kathryn was preceded in death by her husband, Eldon, her parents, her in-laws, James and Bernice Hungerford, one sister, Jeanette Johnson, and one brother, Robert Raecker, as well as brothers-in-law, Walter Hungerford, Neil Hungerford and Orin Sparby, sisters-in-law, Mary Hungerford, Inez Sparby, Pearl Hungerford, and Sylvia Raecker, and one son-in-law, David Miller.

She is survived by her children: Cheryl (Gene Pitzen) Renwick of Stacyville, Brenda Miller of Nora Springs, Debra (Keith) Bauer of Floyd, Susan (Scott) Engelhardt of Osage, Bruce (Tammy) Hungerford of Osage, and Mark Hungerford of Osage: ten grandchildren: Amy (Nat) Hansen, Daniel Renwick, Timothy Miller, Julie Bauer, Brian (Sarah) Bauer, Luke (Jenny) Gast, Amber (Todd) Kuntz, Joseph (Susanna) Hungerford, Holli (Zach) Counsell, and Jon (Teree) Hungerford, and twelve great-grandchildren. Kathryn is also survived by one sister-in-law, Lois Thompto and several nieces and nephews.

Champion-Bucheit Funeral Home, Osage Iowa

Globe Gazette -- Mason City, Iowa
February 13, 2019