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Mary Catherine Spears of West Union was born on June 10, 1933, in Waterloo, Iowa, the daughter of Charles and Lydia Speicher Beener.\u00a0Mary passed away peacefully on July 4th, 2024, from natural causes. She had been residing at the Good Samaritan Home, where she courageously faced the challenges of dementia.<\/p>\n
Mary graduated from East High School in Waterloo in 1951. She married Ronald Spears and together they had four children. Later they divorced.\u00a0 She furthered her education at NICC in Calmar, where she studied Building Materials and Bookkeeping. In addition, she enjoyed taking numerous adult night classes on various topics that sparked her interest.<\/p>\n
Mary worked at Black’s Coffee Shop, Rath’s Payroll Office, and Waterloo Savings Bank. She also worked at Stamper\u2019s Dry Goods in Dubuque, was a teacher\u2019s aide in Strawberry Point, spent 10 years as a cashier and deli manager at Traegers in West Union, and served 6.5 years as a dietary aide and 3.5 years as an activity director at the Cedar Falls Lutheran Home. Additionally, she spent 35 years as an Avon representative, with the last two being her proudest achievements. A lifelong member of the Lutheran Church, she sang in the choir, taught Sunday school, and participated in Bethel training.<\/p>\n
Mary had a kind and gentle soul, cherished by all who knew her. She was a creative maker and tinkerer, always creating something with her hands. Mary had a passion for working with wood, creating everything from desk organizers and small sculptures to furniture. She always kept a basket of yarn beside her chair, crocheting with dedication. Even in the nursing home, she was determined to finish her purse despite her dementia. She loved the stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder and enjoyed reading them to her grandchildren. Mary kept everyone updated on her favorite TV shows and collected lighthouses. Her passion for rock collecting never waned, even from her wheelchair outside the nursing home. Her hobbies included sewing, leathercraft, writing her own book, camping, fishing, and tinkering with anything that needed fixing or repurposing. One of her favorite pastimes was building with Legos alongside her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her family fondly remembers her pineapple slush and popcorn balls at Christmas, mornings with fried mush, and hearty stew on Thanksgiving. Later in life, she discovered a love for painting and drawing. Mary treasured spending time with her family, especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, never minding the messes they made. She loved to travel, which included trips to California and Germany to visit her children.\u00a0In her last years, she loved\u00a0reading Birds and Blooms<\/em> magazine and\u00a0watching the\u00a0birds\u00a0eating from her bird feeder\u00a0outside her window.\u00a0Her legacy of creativity, love, and dedication continues to inspire those who knew her.<\/p>\n Mary is survived by her children Kim (Brian) Harper of West Union, Rod (Norine) Spears of Lawrence, KS, and Sarah (Matthias) Moeschlin of Rummingen, Germany. Her grandchildren are Lakisha (Harry) Aller of Indianola; Jesse (Jon) Hapke of Des Moines; Zach Spears of Eudora, KS; Kieran and Adi Spears of Lawrence, KS; and Kaden Moeschlin of Freiburg, Germany. Her great-grandchildren are Nadera and Jodi Aller, and Gray and Sloan Hapke. She is also survived by two brothers, Richard (Vivian) Beener and Robert Beener, both of Cedar Falls.<\/p>\n She was preceded in death by her daughter Cyndi Spears; her brothers LaVerne and Irvin Beener; her sister Janice Durnil, and her parents.<\/p>\n Memorial services for Mary will be held\u00a0 on Saturday, September 14th, 2024<\/span><\/strong> at 11:00 am at Zion Lutheran Church in West Union, Iowa, with Pastor Isaiah Stansbery as officiant.<\/p>\n Inurnment will precede the service with family in Hawkeye, Iowa.<\/p>\n Burnham-Wood-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service of West Union, Iowa is helping the family with the arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mary Catherine Spears of West Union was born on June 10, 1933, in Waterloo, Iowa, the daughter of Charles and Lydia Speicher Beener.\u00a0Mary passed away peacefully on July 4th, 2024, from natural causes. She had been residing at the Good Samaritan Home, where she courageously faced the challenges of dementia. Mary graduated from East High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1200],"class_list":["post-16521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-spears"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16521","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=16521"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16751,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16521\/revisions\/16751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}