ANNELIESE GAUMER
Indianola

Anneliese Gernert was born on March 2, 1926 in Schweinfurt, Germany, the daughter of Edmund and Klara Gernert.  She lived through bombing raids that destroyed her family home in World War II and met her husband Don Gaumer during the war when she sewed new stripes on his uniform.  She left her family in Germany to move half way around the world to Clarke County, Iowa to start a new life with this soldier that she met.  She was married wearing a dress made from a parachute her mother had found.  Shortly following the ceremony they started out on their new adventure traveling on a troop transport across the Atlantic surviving seasickness all the way to the east coast.

She became a naturalized citizen but refused to teach her sons her native language, because "We are Americans."  She worked as a nurse, seamstress, store clerk, took in boarders in the family home and finally became a small business owner.  She owned The Hobby Shop on the north side of the Indianola square.  After a few years, the family moved to Lake Havasu City, AZ. where she went into partnership on an early convenience store five miles from town.  After a year in Arizona the family returned to Iowa. They then started a freight salvage store that over time turned into a new and used furniture store.  When it came time to retire a decade later, she still couldn't sit still.  They would get up early every day to clean an office so they wouldn't stay in bed.  She also started sewing for people again doing alterations and repairs for people in her porch room.

Don passed away and she was alone but she kept sewing and kept helping people.  As the end drew near, she was just like she always was, a stubborn, bull headed German but she still had a few things left to do.  On Thursday, April 13, 2017 she peacefully drifted off.

She is survived by her sons, Ben (Gretchen) Gaumer, Wolf (Susan) Gaumer, Bob (Christina) Gaumer; seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren; sister, Hedwig (Josef) Müller; and a brother, Wolfgang (Lisl) Gernert.  She was preceded in death by her husband, Don Gaumer; parents Edmund and Klara Gernert, daughter-in-law, Priscilla Gaumer.

Services for Anneliese Gaumer, 91, will be held 11 a.m.,  Monday, April 17 at Overton Funeral Home in Indianola with burial following in the Indianola I.O.O.F. Cemetery.  The visitation will be held from 9 to 11 a.m., prior to services at the funeral home on Monday.