Ruth E. Martin

Ruth Elizabeth (Walser) Zuehlke, Martin of Mason City, IA, died peacefully on Saturday, October 22, 2016, at the IOOF Home at age 103. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 AM on Thursday, October 27, 2016, at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1405 S. Pennsylvania Avenue, with Pastor Travis Stevick officiating. Visitation will be from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM on Wednesday, October 26, 2016, at Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 North Pennsylvania Avenue. Interment will take place in Memorial Park Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to the Ruth Martin memorials fund in care of the family.

Ruth was born September 2, 1913, in the family farmhouse east of Northwood, Iowa. She was the only daughter of Peter Walser and Emma (Stehn) Walser. She attended school in Northwood and graduated near the top of her class in 1932 in the heart of the depression. She attended the University of Wisconsin for a semester returning home to help her ill mother. She graduated from Hamilton Business College in bookkeeping and worked for the Iowa Hardware Mutual Insurance Company in Mason City until her marriage to Walter Edmund Zuehlke on September 20, 1944. They farmed southwest of Mason City for 28 years and had two children, Suzanne and Mark. Ruth worked for many years as the secretary/treasurer for the rural Mason City School board and in the forerunner of the Area Education Association. As a farm wife, she gardened, canned, and cared for her flock of over 2000 chickens. She loved music. In her high school years she played leading vocal roles in musicals and later sang in many choirs. As an accomplished pianist, she often accompanied family members. She was active in many organizations- Eastern Star, Wesley Methodist Church, Universalist Club, Oweso Club, Etude Club, and Chapter KX of the PEO Sisterhood. She served as Chapter KX president and represented Mason City chapters at International in New Orleans. Ruth, Walter, and family traveled by auto every August to many parts of the United States and Canada, and she flew twice to Europe. After Walter’s death, she moved into Mason City and in 1976 married Morris Martin. They built a home in Mesa, AZ, where they wintered happily for ten years and she learned to paint and play golf. She lived in her Mason City house until her 93rd birthday. She moved to Homestead Assisted Living for a year before transferring to the IOOF Home in 2007. She lived to be 103 years of age due in no small part to the exemplary care she received there.

She was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Arthur and Ernest, her husbands Walter Zuehlke (1972) and Morris Martin (1985).

She is survived by her daughter Suzanne (Don) Hofstrand, Mason City, her son Mark (Sharon) Zuehlke in Maricopa, AZ, and step-daughter Ellen (Tim) Janicke in Sun City, AZ. 5 grandchildren: Guthrie (Rhana), Trapper (Rhoda), and Nicholas (Rachael) Zuehlke, Andrew (Yasmin) and Laura Hofstrand, and step-grandchildren Amy Bjerke and Aaron Madsen- 4 great-grandchildren: Jonah, Zachary, Zayden, and Dante Zuehlke and two step-great-grandchildren Jeremy and Lexie Zuehlke.