Wendell Luetje

WENDELL MARTIN LUETJE 1921-2011 Wendell Martin Luetje, 89, of Westside, died Friday, Feb. 7, 2011, at St. Anthony Nursing Home in Carroll. Funeral service will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Zion Lutheran Church in Arcadia with Pastor Ben Dose officiating. Burial will be at Westside Cemetery. Friends may call Zion Lutheran Church in Arcadia from 5 to 8 p.m. today. There will be a 7 p.m. prayer service. Organist will be Ben Dose, and the congregation will sing. Casket bearers will be Eddie Noethe, George Doyel, Gary Lenz, Dale Lenz, Melvin Berger and Stan Musfeldt. Wendell was born Nov. 20, 1921, on a farm south of Carroll and was a son of Juergen H. and Martha Miller Luetje. He was baptized and confirmed at Peace Lutheran Church in Glidden. In 1939, the family moved to Westside, where Wendell graduated from Westside High School. Following high school, he helped this father on the farm and also worked with Bill Stoelk in the electrical business. On Dec. 11, 1946, he married Norma Jean Schrum at Zion Lutheran Church in Manning with Pastor J.M. Ansorge officiating. The Luetjes farmed in rural Westside for 42 years before moving into Westside in 1987. Wendell was a member of Zion Lutheran Church and held various offices in the church, member of the Ar-We-Va School Board, member of Westside Community Club, which he had served as its president and director was and a member of the Hayes Township Schuetzen Verein. He enjoyed fishing, bowling, playing cards, going to dances, watching the St. Louis Cardinals and the Iowa Hawkeyes, and mowing grass at the farm. He is survived by his wife Norma Jean of Westside; three sons James and his wife Myra of Westside, Jerald and his wife Kathy of Ankeny, and Jay and his wife Cathie of Westside; a daughter Judith Edwards and her husband Jack of Omaha; grandchildren Dennis Glathar and wife Jennifer, Rob Luetje and wife Julie, Adam Luetje and wife Laura, Jerrod Luetje and wife Amy, Sarah Pettyford, Andrea, Jacob and Jagar Luetje; three great-grandchildren Ashlyn and Adelyn Glathar and Micah Pettford; sister Leta Jensen and husband Wally of Carroll; two sisters-in-law Delores Luetje of Westside and Dorthea Musfeldt of Manning. He was preceded in death by his granddaughter Sheri Lynnn Luetje, his parents, his twin brother Wilbur and a brother Karl, his mother- and father-in-law Hugo and Adelaide Schrum, sister- and brother-in-law Pete and Margaret Thelen, sister-in-law Delores Schrum, and brothers-in-law Roy Schrum and Harry Musfeldt.