{"id":5947,"date":"2018-10-02T15:35:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T20:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=5947"},"modified":"2018-10-05T15:34:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T20:34:40","slug":"maryann-gray-elkader-iowa-october-2-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2018\/10\/maryann-gray-elkader-iowa-october-2-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"MaryAnn Gray, Elkader, Iowa, October 2, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

MaryAnn Gray, 86, of Elkader Iowa died Tuesday October 2, 2018 at the Elkader Care Center, Elkader IA. MaryAnn Seeland Gray daughter of Louis & Florence (Drallmeier) Seeland was born February 12, 1932 in Boardman Township at her family home. She was baptized May 15th<\/sup>, 1932 at Zion Lutheran Church at Clayton Center, Iowa.<\/p>\n

She went to Boardman country school through Jr. High, then Elkader High School where she graduated on May 21, 1950.\u00a0 She met Arlyn Gerald Gray through mutual friends, Merlin and Lenora Mae Anderson, and they married on December 7th<\/sup>, 1950 at Peace Evangelical and Reformed Church, Elkader. She was confirmed March 18, 1951 by Rev. Paul Kitterer, Peace Evangelical and Reformed Church, Elkader.<\/p>\n

Four Children were born to this marriage, Cheryl, Jay (Lynn), Dean and Duane. MaryAnn and Arlyn raised and provided for their children on her home farm, that now is 140 years in the Seeland\/Gray family.<\/p>\n

She enjoyed cooking for her family and church, spending many hours in Peace Church\u2019s kitchen. She also loved her flower and vegetable gardens with some of her flowers still blooming at the farm.\u00a0 She worked on the farm, helping to milk and drive tractor (her favorite job was raking hay).\u00a0 She and Arlyn loved to go fishing on the family pontoon, and spent many evenings dancing to a local country music band.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Every anniversary of theirs and their close friends, Merlin and Lenora Mae Anderson and Sylvan and Mary Torkelson, were spent together for 60 years. They belonged to a neighborhood card club and she was an excellent euchre player, known by the family as \u201cthe winner\u201d. Every Wednesday night for many years she bowled for Lynn\u2019s hairstyling. They enjoyed all their special outings and trips and their yearly fishing expeditions.\u00a0 She was an active member of the Friendly Neighborhood Club, Woman\u2019s Fellowship and Deborah Circle of Peace Church in which she held many offices. She was also on the board of Scenic Acres.<\/p>\n

MaryAnn was very proud of her children, and her grandchildren were the light of her life. In later years the great-grandchildren always brought a smile to her face.<\/p>\n

Survivors include her children- Cheryl (Don) Bossard of Farmersburg Ia., Jay \u201cLynn\u201d Gray of Tucson Az., Dean (Joanne) Gray of St. Olaf Ia., and Duane (Ruth) Gray of Thomson IL. Nine Grandchildren \u2013 Ann (Jeremy) Smith, Jerry (Kelly) Bossard, Talitha (Joe) Gray-Kozlowski, Rebecca Gray, Sarah (Todd) Gray-Lawson, Abby (Dan) Palmeri, David Gray, Steven (Nicole) Gray and Flora Gray. Four Step grandchildren \u2013 Christopher Jones, Jonathan (Kate) Jones, Andrea (Jeff) Braunger and Angela (Chad) Jilek.\u00a0 Four Great Grandchildren \u2013 Domenik Smith, Skylar Palmeri, Ciera Gray, Jackson Gray.\u00a0 10 step great grandchildren \u2013 Madeleine Jones, Meagan Jones, Mackenzie VanWinkle, Xander Jones, Xavier Jones, Gabriel Jones, Ethan Braunger, Avary Braunger, Kinsey Jilek and Kamryn Jilek.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her sisters \u2013 Eileen Smith of Marion, IA., Florene (Lee) Kopecky of Cedar Rapids; her sister in laws \u2013 Alice Sorenson of Ames, IA ,Lavon Gray of Blue Grass, IA and numerus nieces, nephews and friends.<\/p>\n

MaryAnn was preceded in death by her husband Arlyn, her parents, her sister Amy Dvorak, her brother in laws Eugene Dvorak, Les Smith, Alan Gray, Harold \u201cChris\u201d Sorenson and her brother in law and sister in law Harold and Arlene Dicus.<\/p>\n

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

Funeral Service<\/strong>: 10:30 AM Tuesday, October 9, 2018, at Peace United Church of Christ in Elkader with Rev. John Haack officiating.<\/p>\n

Interment<\/strong>: Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Clayton Center, Iowa<\/p>\n

Leonard-Grau Funeral Home & Cremation Service is assisting the family with arrangements. Online condolences may be left with www.graufuneralhomes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MaryAnn Gray, 86, of Elkader Iowa died Tuesday October 2, 2018 at the Elkader Care Center, Elkader IA. MaryAnn Seeland Gray daughter of Louis & Florence (Drallmeier) Seeland was born February 12, 1932 in Boardman Township at her family home. She was baptized May 15th, 1932 at Zion Lutheran Church at Clayton Center, Iowa. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[515],"class_list":["post-5947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-gray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947","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=5947"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5959,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947\/revisions\/5959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}