Tiessen, Grace Charlotte Miller (1916-2008)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2008 May 26 p. 9

Birth date: 1916 Oct 29

text of obituary:

GRACE C. TIESSEN

Grace Charlotte Miller Tiessen, 91, of Kalona, Iowa, died April 13, 2008. She was born Oct. 29, 1916, to Leroy and Lydia Troyer Miller one mile east of Kalona.

She moved to Arkansas with her family from 1926 to 1936, graduating from Stuttgart High School in 1933. Returning to Iowa, she was employed at Reif’s and Farmers Savings Bank. She also taught at several one-room country schools north of Kalona. She attended Iowa Teacher’s College and later Goshen (Ind.) College, where she received her bachelor of English degree in 1948. Several years later she volunteered to serve in Europe with Mennonite Central Committee, where she met Gerhard Tiessen. They were married May 22, 1954, in Winnipeg, Man.

She was a charter member of Kalona Mennonite Church, where she was active in WMSC and sang in many groups. She was congregational correspondent to Mennonite Weekly Review for many years. She taught at Iowa Mennonite School from 1961 to 1978. After retiring, she and Gerhard worked for MCC in California for two years.

Survivors include a son, John Tiessen and his wife, Elizabeth, of Elk Grove Village, Ill.; a brother, J. John J. Miller and his wife, Mabel, of Kalona; two sisters-in-law, Mary Ellen Miller of Kalona and Marichen Isaak of Bielefeld, Germany; a brother-in-law, Al Neuenschwander of Geneva, Ind.; and four grandchildren.

Funeral services were held at Kalona Mennonite Church. Burial was in Sharon Hill Cemetery.