Faith C. Priebe

Faith C. Priebe, age 94, of Elma, IA passed away on Sunday, October 31, 2021 at Colonial Manor in Elma with her family by her side. Funeral services will be held at 12:00 PM on Friday, November 5, 2021 at St. Paul’s Maple Leaf Lutheran Church rural Elma with Pastor Dan Christensen officiating. There will be a two hour visitation prior to the funeral on Friday. Burial will take place after the funeral in the church cemetery. Online condolences may be left at www.conway-markhamfh.com. Memorials may be directed to the church. Conway-Markham Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements. It would be hard to celebrate this remarkable woman’s life without making comparison to her name, Faith, and the way she lived every day: simply put, she lived by faith. Born in Pingree North Dakota to Clayton and Elizabeth on March 2, 1927, she was named Faith Carrie Kuderling. She was later joined by sisters Edith, Ruth, Clara Mae, Shirley, and brother Fred. She had a lot of responsibility helping to raise and care for her younger siblings and helping to scratch out a living on a small crop farm in hardscrabble land. Boarding with a family in Carrington, ND, she graduated high school at the young age of 16 and from there, enrolled in Wireless Operator School funded by the federal government where she learned telegraphy, the first electrical communications system using telegraphs and Morse code. After receiving her War Emergency Certificate, she was assigned to the railroad station in Tacoma Washington where she sent radio messages to move the troop trains in and out of the Pacific Northwest. It was in her adult life where her name truly demonstrated her life. She was a faithful and a loving wife to her husband Leo. Remarkable, considering she met him when she was only 14 when he worked on a threshing crew, traveling from Iowa through Minnesota, and then North Dakota as the crop ripened. Their courtship was brief and predominantly through hand written letters as he was drafted in WWII, landing on Utah Beach June 11. Their letters expressed their hopes and dreams and her remarkable faith that he would come home to her. Wounded multiple times, he did come home to her and they were married just a week before her 19th birthday with 11 people at her wedding, none of her family present, short of cash, but demonstrating a faith that everything would work out. They settled on their farm North of Elma where, despite what life threw at them, they were a happy couple for nearly 75 years. She was faithful to her children. Unconditionally, she loved all eight of her living children, their spouses and their children and their children’s children. She didn’t believe in step- children or adopted children; all children were to be loved and hugged. A great sadness in her life was delivering a son, Neil that was born still. She never stopped loving, mourning, and missing him. By example, she taught Linda Connie Don Mike Jo Gail Kris and Scott to have faith in God, to honor your spouse, to be honest, to have integrity, to work hard, to not give up, to share your blessings, to laugh, to forgive, to be a good friend, to love reading, to be grateful, to have empathy and compassion, to have pride in what you did and who you are, to have a sense of humor, to be happy, to put an extra plate on the table, to be loving, and that there was always always time to sit down and properly admire a baby. She also taught, or tried to, teach her kids how to behave and assume responsibility; sometimes, this, was not an easy task. One of the things that Faith kept track of, updated, and shared with anyone who would listen was how many children she had, (8) how many grandchildren she had ( 26), how many great grandchildren (47) and how many great great grandchildren, (10). At family gatherings and holidays, she would look at everybody there and then look at Leo and say with pride and equal disbelief, “and to think, we started this whole mess”. She was a faithful member of St. Paul’s Maple Leaf Lutheran, her beloved country church that she belonged to for over 60 years. She loved her country church; its congregation, their friends. Over her lifetime, that church was one of the things for which she was most thankful. And she served her church well. Literally, for decades, she was Sunday School Superintendent and Treasurer, Sunday School and Bible school teacher to the children, knowing them all by name and liberally, giving out hugs to all she came in contact with, happy to have them sit with her and Leo on Sundays. She was a member of WELCA (she called it Ladies Aid; Leo called it Hen Quack), serving on various committees over the years. She made many of the altar cloths and banners still used in the church today. She made her share of food for church suppers, fund raisers, bake sales, meetings, and funerals. In addition to cleaning the church, Faith and Leo made certain that fresh flowers were on the altar on Sundays and holidays. She literally cut, sewed, quilted, tied, and baled thousands of pounds of mission quilts that St Paul’s sent to the less fortunate. She was at peace knowing that St Paul’s would be her final resting place. She was faithful to her community and country. She was a 4H leader for the Saratoga Sunbeams over 10 years, teaching young girls how to cook, bake, sew, give demonstrations, and keep record books. She was a supporter of Colonial Manor Rest home since it was built and volunteered her time and talents to the staff and residents there. She participated in the fund raisers at the high school that her children attended, making food and treats for anything or anyone with needs. When her youngest graduated, she was very proud of receiving an “EXCELLENCE IN DOUGHNUT-MAKING” certificate from the football coach. She participated in weight loss clubs, library club, auxiliary clubs and a craft club she called Sip and Stitch; Leo called this Sit and Bitch. She made an apple cake from scratch that her kids only knew as “funeral cake” and it, along with rhubarb pie, and chicken and biscuits, was delivered to many many friends and neighbors during their sad times. Like the Proverbs woman, she was faithful to her gifts and was talented and industrious. There was nothing that she couldn’t do, fix, make, or mend. She sewed hundreds of wedding, prom, baptism, bridesmaids, birthday, communion, and confirmation dresses, fixing her old Singer as she went along. She knitted, crocheted, quilted, mended, tatted, embroidered, and patched thousands of garments, blankets, gloves, mittens, hats, scarves, tablecloths, doilies, dishtowels, pillowcases, and afghans. She literally, never sat still; her hands were always busy with something that demanded attention. There wasn’t a chair or sofa in her house that wasn’t stuck full of pins and needles, and pattern pieces, fabric and yarn were to be found on every flat surface. And how that woman preserved and made food! She was a well-known country cook. But not by opening cans or jars from a store, she plowed, planted, hoed, harvested, froze, fed, milked, caught, cleaned, cut -up, and canned virtually everything she put on the table. All these things she did cheerfully and happily, usually humming or singing. She passed on some of these skills to some of her children. But to be fair, she hated housework and unfortunately, passed that on to all of her children. And lastly, it needs to be noted that her faith in God was rock solid and unwavering. She always believed and always knew that heaven would be her reward. The last couple years were hard for her but by her faith and God’s grace (she died on reformation Sunday), you can be certain that she has been welcomed into eternity, made whole, and has been reunited with all her loved ones. Her master has said “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of heaven!”