Geneva Grothe

Funeral Service for Geneva Grothe, 99, of Wheaton, Minnesota will be held Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 2:00 P.M. at the Ranney Funeral Home in Wheaton. Visitation will be held one hour prior to services at the funeral home. Interment will be in Wildwood Cemetery, rural Wheaton. Geneva Lorraine Anderson was born on a farm in rural West Monson Township, Traverse County, Minnesota on January 15, 1911 to Swan and Minnie (Larson) Anderson. She grew up on the farm where she helped her mother take care of the younger brothers and sisters and learned how to bake, cook and clean house. Geneva also worked for other families helping with the housekeeping and cooking. She was baptized and confirmed at the Augustana Lutheran Church of White Rock, South Dakota. She got her education in a country school at District #40. She married Henry Dick Ignatz Grothe on November 26, 1935 at the GA Lutheran Parsonage in Wheaton, Minnesota. After marriage, she and her husband worked for other farmers before starting a farming operation of their own in the Wheaton area. Geneva continued to work for other families at times helping with housekeeping and cooking. The couple moved to Morris, where her husband Dick was employed by the University of Minnesota Morris. After Dick retired, they moved back to Wheaton and lived in the Andell Apartments. After Dicks death on May 21, 2002, Geneva lived in the Wheaton Apartments before entering the Traverse Care Center where she lived until her death on November 6, 2010. Geneva is survived by two brothers: Webber (Lois) Anderson and Darwin (Donna) Anderson both of Wheaton, Minnesota, numerous nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews, one sister-in-law: Mary Anderson of Morris, Minnesota and two brothers-in-law: Eugene Fridgen and Francis Finke both of Wheaton, and many cousins. Geneva was preceded in death by her parents, husband, siblings: Gordon and wife Elsie, Rose and husband Sam Goodwalt, Bernice and husband William Paul, Pearl and husband Garold Berneking, Glenn, Wallace, Doris and Donna.