{"id":5846,"date":"2018-09-02T13:51:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T18:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=5846"},"modified":"2018-09-06T14:15:04","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T19:15:04","slug":"ruth-goings-elkader-iowa-september-2-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2018\/09\/ruth-goings-elkader-iowa-september-2-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruth Goings, Elkader, Iowa, September 2, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ruth Goings, 71, of Elkader, Iowa died Sunday, September 2nd\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>2018, in the arms of her family.\u00a0 She was born October 5, 1946 in Charles City to Harry and Helen (Hinmon) Trepton.\u00a0 She grew up in Nashua, Iowa in a loving family consisting of her parents, grandparents, sister, Mary Ellen, and brother, David.\u00a0 She graduated from Nashua Community High School in 1965.<\/p>\n

In 1966 she married her high school sweetheart, Ken Goings. Ruth and Ken moved to Elkader in the winter of 1970, where Ken got a teaching job at Central Community School.\u00a0 They loved the community so much that they made it their permanent home.\u00a0 Ken and Ruth\u2019s four children were their greatest joy and delight.\u00a0 All their life\u2019s accomplishments pale in comparison to the importance that they placed on the raising of their children.<\/p>\n

Ruth went back to school and finished her teaching degree at Upper Iowa in 1990, the same year her oldest son graduated from college.\u00a0 Ruth was a lifelong educator, teaching everything from Kindergarten to high school\u00a0 When Ruth lost the love of her life in 2004, she recreated herself as a single woman among amazing friends, playing golf, bridge, Settlers of Catan, and participating in groups like P.E.O., Seekers, and Seasoned Women.<\/p>\n

Ruth was active in her community and her church.\u00a0 She started the first bell choir at Peace United Church of Christ and was proud of the fact that she had sung in a church choir from the age of 3.\u00a0 She served on the library board, as church council president, was a part of Peace\u2019s first Stevens Ministry group, and was both a participant and a leader in Beginning Experience.<\/p>\n

Ruth lived a life full of optimism and enthusiasm.\u00a0 She loved nature and all green and growing things.\u00a0 She loved music, reading, biking, and spending time with her extended family.\u00a0 In later years, she traveled to Chile, Italy, Ireland, Tanzania, and made several trips to New York City.\u00a0 She was an avid sports fan, deeply loyal to the Iowa Hawkeyes.\u00a0 She had a sunny personality that brought people to her and a special talent with children.\u00a0 She completed RAGBRAI (twice) and several Boundary Waters\/Quetico canoe trips. She loved collecting inspirational quotes.<\/p>\n

Survivors include her children, Scott (Amy Woodworth) Goings, St. Paul, MN, Mark (Barbara) Goings, Augusta, WI, Peggy (Miles Pitcairn) Goings, San Diego, CA and Mary (Tim) Otto, Richland Center, WI; grandchildren, James, Jackson, Sam, Charlotte, Ben, and Ellie; great-grandson, Oliver; Brother, David (Karen) Trepton, Oconomowoc, WI and sister-in-law, Kathy (Bob) Baird, Waterloo, IA.<\/p>\n

Ruth was preceded in death and is now reunited with her parents, her sister and brother-in-law, Mary Ellen and Ken Jezeski, and her beloved husband, Ken.<\/p>\n

Ruth was a loving and devoted daughter, wife, mother, Nana, friend, colleague, and person.\u00a0 We love you Ruth.<\/p>\n

Visitation<\/strong>: 4 to 8 PM on Thursday, September 6, 2018, at Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Elkader and after 9:30 AM on Friday at Peace United Church of Christ also in Elkader.<\/p>\n

Funeral Service<\/strong>: 10:30 AM on Friday, September 7, 2018, at Peace United Church of Christ in Elkader with Rev. Jon Haack officiating.<\/p>\n

Interment<\/strong>: East Side Cemetery, Elkader, Iowa<\/p>\n

Leonard-Grau Funeral Home & Cremation Service is assisting the family. Online condolences may be left with www.graufuneralhomes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruth Goings, 71, of Elkader, Iowa died Sunday, September 2nd\u00a0\u00a0 2018, in the arms of her family.\u00a0 She was born October 5, 1946 in Charles City to Harry and Helen (Hinmon) Trepton.\u00a0 She grew up in Nashua, Iowa in a loving family consisting of her parents, grandparents, sister, Mary Ellen, and brother, David.\u00a0 She graduated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[505],"class_list":["post-5846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-goings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846","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=5846"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5859,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846\/revisions\/5859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}