Gertrude Guenther

Gertrude Guenther, 96, Jamestown, North Dakota died Saturday, April 5, 2014 at Ave Maria Village, Jamestown.

Gertrude married Emil Guenther on September 10, 1937. Gertrude and Emil had two children. Gerald, was born in 1939 and Connie in 1942. She has seven grandchildren, Page (married to Jason), Chad, Seth (married to Daniele), Tara, John (married to Jodene), Stephen, (married to Allison) and Karen. She also has eight great grandchildren named Noah, Emily, Jason, and Jonah Jenkins and William, Joshua, Kendell and Kaylin Dunphy.

Together with her husband Emil, Gertrude co-operated a farm from the first day of their marriage until Emil retired in 1984. In 1954 she started working for JC Penny, an occupation she continued on and off for many years. In 1974 Gertrude and Emil purchased the Guenther Motel in Jamestown, North Dakota. They owned and operated it until 1980. She was the bookkeeper, and managed it with Emil. Even after they sold the motel, they always moved back to the farm during the summer until 1984.

She taught Sunday school at her church as a teenage girl. She served as a Deaconess at First Baptist Church in Jamestown, ND. She read the Bible from cover to cover many times.

Throughout her life Gertrude as served her community. During the years she was on the farm she served as a 4H leader for many years. She was a volunteer at First Baptist and Temple Baptist serving as needed, doing jobs from cleaning the church to running the church library. During the course of her life she has prayed for her church, her community, friends and family. She was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and had many friends throughout her life. Gertrude enjoyed reading and loved books. She was an avid reader. She read magazines, books, and two newspapers every day. She can read and write German as well as English. She was an exceptional seamstress. She even used her sewing skill to make drapes and decorate her home.

She enjoyed words and their meanings. Every day she searched the newspaper for crossword puzzles. She was a ferocious competitor in any game, but especially Scrabble. She played with a dictionary in one hand and the blocks of letters in the other with her eyes and mind on the board. She enjoyed cards, especially Whist and would count and remember each card played. At the age of 83 she purchased a computer, became proficient with it, and used it every day for e mail and to pay her bills. She kept a diary for most of her life. Each day she wrote a detailed record of her life and daily happenings as they occurred. This journal has now become very valuable to her children and grandchildren.

She was a loving wife, a devoted mother, dearly loved her family, a loyal friend, skilled in everything from milking a cow to baking bread to sewing a dress to operating the newest technology. What she did not know, she is willing to learn. Throughout her life she had intellectual curiosity, a determined spirit, and the ability to perceive the task and complete it.