MOVILLE, Iowa -- Ruth E. Groom, 88, of Sioux City, formerly of Moville, died Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009, at NorthPark Senior Living.
Graveside services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday in Arlington Township Cemetery, Moville, with the Rev. David Kramer officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of McCulloch Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home in Moville.
Ruth was born Dec. 14, 1920, in Vermillion, S.D., the daughter of Oscar and Wilma (Chapman) Johnson. She attended school in the Greenfield area, just north of Vermillion. She graduated from Vermillion High School in 1938. She continued her education and graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1942. She taught high school English and social studies for many years in Cushing, Iowa and Eastwood in Correctionville, Iowa.
It was while teaching in Cushing, she met her future husband, Gail Groom. They were united in marriage on June 23, 1945, at Dalesburg Lutheran Church near Vermillion. They made their home near Cushing. They moved to Moville in 1976 and to NorthPark in 1996. Gail died July 19, 2002.
She was a former member of St. John Lutheran Church in Cushing and a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Moville. She enjoyed traveling and had traveled through most of the states in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe.
Survivors include two daughters, Barbara Groom of Sioux City and Carol and her husband, Manfred Wunderlich of Omaha; a grandson and his wife, David and Amanda Wunderlich; a granddaughter and her husband, Julie and Nick Bernard; and two great-grandchildren, Mabel and Michael "Finn".
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Gail; and a brother, Wallace Johnson.