James John KIRSCH

KIRSCH, ENGH, ANDERSON, FRIEDOW, SEVERSON, VANDERPLOEG, JOHNSON, THOMSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/4/2010 at 20:02:03

Mason City Globe Gazette, Iowa
August 30, 1996

BROOKINGS, S.D. -- James John Kirsch was born Feb. 22, 1921, at Waterloo, Iowa, to Grover M. and Maymie C. Kirsch. He died Wednesday (Aug. 28, 1996) at Brookview Manor in Brookings, at the age of 75. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Brookings, with the Rev. Richard Townes officiating. Visitation will be held from 9 a.m. until time of service at the church. Burial will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1, 1996, at the Amsterdam Township Cemetery, Kanawha, Iowa, with the Rev. David A. Lee of the Kanawha Lutheran Church officiating. There will be a presentation of the American Flag by the Severson Post #77 and Kanawha American Legion. The family requests memorials be given to the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in his memory. Eidsness Funeral Home, Brookings, is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Kirsch was baptized and confirmed at Waterloo, Iowa. He graduated from Sioux City, Iowa, High School in 1940, and attended Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. He joined the Army Air Corps on July 8, 1942, and was discharged in 1945. On Nov. 4, 1967, Mr. Kirsch married Arlene M. Engh at Waterloo, Iowa. They lived in Waterloo and Iowa Falls, where Mr. Kirsch was a radio announcer and Realtor. In 1972, they moved to Elgin, Ill., where he was employed as a school custodian for 15 years. In 1987, he retired, and he and his wife moved to Brookings. She died in 1988. Mr. Kirsch was a member of Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church and active in the Bible study group. He enjoyed gardening, fishing, shooting pool and spending time with his grandchildren.

Survivors include a stepson, Dennis Engh and his wife, Connie, of Las Vegas, Nev.; a stepdaughter, Diane Anderson and her husband, Lynn, of Brookings, S.D.; four stepgrandchildren, Brooke and Tyler Anderson and Erik and Matthew Engh; a brother, Paul Kirsch of Waterloo, Iowa; his sisters-in-law, Audrey Friedow of Madison, S.D.; Dolores (Gordon) Severson of Luther, Iowa; Kathy (Robert) VanderPloeg of Auxvasse, Mo., and Dorothy Johnson of Kanawha, Iowa; and his brothers-in-law, Roger (Margaret) Johnson of Kanawha, Iowa, and Lowell Thomson of Mason City, Iowa. He was preceded in death by his wife, Arlene; his parents; and an infant sister.