{"id":12378,"date":"2021-12-14T08:42:21","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T14:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=12378"},"modified":"2021-12-14T16:01:21","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T22:01:21","slug":"mildred-jean-butikofer-elgin-iowa-december-13-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2021\/12\/mildred-jean-butikofer-elgin-iowa-december-13-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Mildred Jean Butikofer, Elgin, Iowa, December 13, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mildred \u201cMillie\u201d Jean Butikofer, age 97, of Elgin, Iowa, went home to be with the Lord on Monday morning, December 13, 2021, with her dear husband, Paul, holding her hand.\u00a0 Millie was the daughter of Hans and Lydia Friederich and was born in Elgin, Iowa, on June 9, 1924, along with her twin sister, Margaret.\u00a0 At age 10, Millie moved with her family to Taylor,Missouri.\u00a0 She later married Paul Butikofer on May 8, 1949, in the Taylor Apostolic Christian Church.<\/p>\n

Millie graduated from Palmyra High School in Palmyra, Missouri, in 1942.\u00a0 After graduating, she worked in a shoe factory for several years.\u00a0 As a young adult, Millie made the important decision to surrender her life to Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior.\u00a0 She was a member of the Apostolic Christian Church and had an enduring faith until the end.<\/p>\n

After she married, Millie helped Paul on the farm, driving tractor, baling hay, and raising a few laying hens for eggs, giving her a little extra spending money which she generously shared with others.\u00a0 Together they raised their son, Timothy, and in 1962 when he was 10, they moved to Elgin, Iowa.\u00a0 They retired from farming in 1985, and Millie spent many years helping Paul deliver seed corn to customers and raising and selling melons.\u00a0 Her most important earthly relationship was that of her husband.\u00a0 Often closely by his side, they were married over 72 years and enjoyed a special and often humorous dialogue between the two of them.\u00a0 Special memories were made from family trips and events as well as just ordinary life\u2014living, laughing, and loving.<\/p>\n

Millie loved her husband, son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren dearly.\u00a0 She much preferred serving others instead of being served.\u00a0 She was often found making her famous \u201cGrandma\u2019s Pancakes,\u201d helping Paul mow and garden, and helping her grandchildren freeze peaches, sweet corn, and applesauce.\u00a0 She was constantly in prayer for others around her, including the children she and Paul sponsored in Haiti.<\/p>\n

Her surviving family includes her husband, Paul, of Copper Creek Senior Living, West Union; son, Tim (Kathy) Butikofer of Elgin; grandchildren, Amy (Rhett) Jensen and Meg (Nick) Benson, both of Elgin; and eight great-grandchildren, Trevin, Avery, Vinley, and Zavier Jensen and Noah, Maribelle, Marin, and Brooks Benson; as well as many nieces and nephews.\u00a0 She is preceded in death by her parents; three sisters, Rose Curry and Mabel Hodel, both of California, and her twin sister, Margaret Grimm of Wapello, IA; and two brothers, Elmer Reitz of Kahoka, MO, and Fred Reitz of Taylor, MO; as well as many sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, and a few nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n

Funeral Service<\/strong>: Thursday, December 16, 2021 – 10:30 AM, at the Apostolic Christian Church in Elgin.<\/p>\n

Visitation<\/strong>: Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 4 to 6 PM, at the Apostolic Christian Fellowship Center (church basement), in Elgin.<\/p>\n

Friends may also call<\/strong> Thursday, December 16, 2021, 9:30 to 10:15 AM at the Apostolic Christian Church, in Elgin.<\/p>\n

Interment<\/strong>: Apostolic Christian Cemetery, RR Elgin<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service of Elgin is assisting the family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mildred \u201cMillie\u201d Jean Butikofer, age 97, of Elgin, Iowa, went home to be with the Lord on Monday morning, December 13, 2021, with her dear husband, Paul, holding her hand.\u00a0 Millie was the daughter of Hans and Lydia Friederich and was born in Elgin, Iowa, on June 9, 1924, along with her twin sister, Margaret.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[464],"class_list":["post-12378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-butikofer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12378"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12390,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12378\/revisions\/12390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}