Margaret Elaine Krumm

July 31, 1925 - January 20, 2023

Visitation

Date: January 28, 2023
Time: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Elk Creek Lutheran Church - Rural Kensett, Iowa

Funeral Service

Date: July 1, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Carpenter Community Center - Carpenter, Iowa

The fullness of life has passed for our beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, teacher and friend to so many, Margaret Krumm. She was 97. Margaret Elaine Seuser was born on July 31, 1925, to Charles Wendell “Pat” and Evelyn Matilda Seuser in Freeborn County, Minnesota, the second of five sisters: Irma (Jack) Perkins, Lilly (Stanley) Loland, Ardis (Allan) Hanson and Karen Seuser, who died in infancy. The first years of her life were spent in and around Gordonsville, Minnesota, where the bond to her sisters was forged and she spent many happy days. Although coming up through the Depression, she didn’t recall a time when they didn’t have meat and necessities to get by. She went to rural school near Gordonsville then to the high school in Northwood, Iowa, where she graduated at age 16. Too young to be issued a teaching certificate, she enrolled in the Teacher Training school in Austin, Minnesota, and by the spring of the following year she had her certificate and her first job at a rural one-room schoolhouse in Southern Minnesota. She taught 24 kids in eight grades and recalled how a couple of the eighth-grade boys were bigger than she was! A year later, in the midst of World War II and a severe teacher shortage, she had five competing offers at schools in Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. This was the auspicious beginning to a life committed to teaching in and out of the classroom. She never tired of talking about her time in the classroom and how she taught the children and grandchildren of scores of her former students. Her idea of success did not mean the student became Valedictorian although there were some of those. She was just as thrilled by the students who showed enthusiasm, creativity and spunk. She also recognized that for some just getting to school every day was a victory. There wasn’t one student in all of her career that didn’t matter to her. Her philosophy of education is best relayed in her own words. “I believe because of my training and experience that I can help some children become better citizens and acquire some of the knowledge that they will need in the years to come. I believe that children need to know that they are an important part of our homes, our communities, nation and world. I believe that each child deserves the right to be treated as an individual and that he and she have different interests and skills with which to pursue their interests. I believe that educators need to use all the ways they can in as many ways as they can to bring about learning experiences which will be fulfilling and meaningful to these children.” By the time she retired from her career in 1990 she had touched the lives of countless people. Her family is used to hearing, “your mom was my favorite teacher!” On September 30, 1944, Margaret married Delbert Hanson, a farmer, at First Lutheran Church in Albert Lea, Minnesota. She moved with him to the farm east of Northwood where he lived with his mom and oldest sister. She stepped out of teaching in 1952 to prepare for motherhood and in May of 1953 their son, Doyle, was born. In 1955 their daughter, Eloise, was born and another girl, Wendy, came along in 1959. In motherhood, Margaret found a new calling which supplemented and fulfilled her life in new and wonderful ways. No life is without challenges and one of the greatest for Margaret was losing Delbert in May of 1968. She had just returned to teaching third graders in Northwood but Iowa was requiring a four year teaching degree. Newly widowed with three kids, she had to return to college. Working summers at a local fertilizer store and studying when she could, she was not afraid of hard work or short of determination. In 1970 she graduated from Mankato State with a Bachelor of Arts in Education. For the rest of her life she looked back at the college experience with humor and fondness. During that trying time Lyle Krumm, a friend of Delbert’s, reached out to offer assistance as Margaret may need. Never married, another farmer and living with his parents, Margaret joked that he was not good marriage material! A widow with three children? He felt the same about her! Yet something happened between them no one could have predicted and on June 19, 1971 Margaret and Lyle were married at Deer Creek Lutheran Church, Carpenter, Iowa. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June of 2021, delighting in many happy memories of their years together and the addition of grandchildren and great grandchildren! There have been many devoted grandparents through the years. Lyle and Margaret were two of them! Michael, Kelly and Alexa gave them immeasurable delight as did the three great grandchildren, Victoria, Cole and Jack. Any addition to the family was met with joy. Mark Shipman, Tim Wagner, Calvin Berte and Brooke Aukes joined the family through marriage. In 2018 a man from Everett, Washington, reached out to Doyle with some simple yet profound words: “I think you’re my dad.” David Martin and his family were an unexpected and welcome addition to the family! If family was the heart of Margaret’s life, music was the life blood that sustained her through all of her years. She started early and with no formal lessons. Her parents nudged their little girls along in piano, accordion, ukulele and guitar and they became known as the Seuser sisters, wearing outfits their mom made by hand and performing regularly at community events and programs. To show their versatility, Evelyn had them exchange the instruments during the performance. Even as adults, they’d sometimes get together for a sing-a-long with Irma on banjo, Margaret on the accordion, Lilly at the piano and Ardis with her ukulele. In high school, Margaret was a marimba soloist and competed in a Regional Band Contest. Margaret became active in church music. To take herself to the next level she enrolled in some classes at Waldorf College. For a year, every Thursday she drove the 40 miles from home to study piano, voice and conducting. For most of the rest of her life she was never without a role in music either as organist, accompanist, teacher or director. She wrote and participated in local pageants and celebrations. When asked how many students she instructed or accompanied for their solos, how many weddings and funerals, how many community performances she could only laugh. “Hundreds and hundreds!” One of her most cherished experiences was accompanist to the Elk Creek Boys, a men’s quartet based out of Elk Creek Lutheran Church. For the rest of their lives there was an unbreakable bond between those families. The church was always very meaningful to Margaret and she was a devoted member of the Lutheran Church first at Deer Creek rural Carpenter, Iowa, then Bethany in Kensett, First Lutheran in Northwood, and Elk Creek in rural Kensett. Early on she served as Sunday School Superintendent, secretary of Higher Education and was a member of the Radio Committee for the circuit. That put her in contact with around 60 churches in Northern Iowa and allowed her to work with many pastors and lay people. She also took her turn as a member of the church council, representative to Annual Conference, and librarian/historian. Margaret loved sports and was active with softball in the summer and bowling in the winter. She started as catcher but was mostly on second base or rover. “More than once I went to a wedding rehearsal with a splint on my finger wondering how I was going to be able to play!” In later years golf became her sport. In her 60s, she broke an ankle going through the tires on the training field with her students. When asked what she thought she was doing “at her age”, Margaret replied that she had just as much right to break her ankle in the tires as a 16 year old! March Madness and the World Series were highlights of the year. She was an avid Twins fan and would amuse her family by calling out the players by their first names. “Come on, Kirby, you can do better than that!” With a young family she had gone to many Twins games. After a hiatus of many decades, Margaret was able to attend one more live game in 2019, something she never thought she’d be able to do again. Margaret always loved to travel and took many memorable vacations around the country, into Canada and even across the pond. She traveled to Europe several times and was 80 when she visited Italy. Italy wasn’t her last trip, though, as she visited Belgium after that. Even recently she dreamed of places she could go although acknowledged that wasn’t likely. Even before she kissed the Blarney Stone she was known to have the gift of gab! There was never a lull in the conversation with her around and her wit and spunk will long be remembered. She sent humorous letters to her grandchildren filled with self-deprecating humor and silliness. Her daughters will continue to refer to “Margaret mode” as the ultimate level of industriousness especially when house-cleaning. Her organizational skills were legendary and Eloise remarked, “she’s probably already organizing a choir in heaven.” “Margaretisms” are what family called her funny little sayings. “Look at the size of the hole in that barn! You could throw a cat through it!” “If I wore that I’d look like a sack of potatoes.” “You’ll never be Miss America if you don’t brush your hair.” She would never swear. The closest would be, “well, sugar in the gourd,” “farfenheimer,” “fiddlesticks”, or something like, “snicker snoodle snuffer!” That gift of gab translated into written correspondence, too, using her impeccable hand-writing, a special gift and long lost art many commented on. Every morning she would read the daily devotion then sit and write out cards and letters to recognize births, weddings, anniversaries, confirmations, graduations, funerals and special occasions. Her nieces and nephews and their children held a very special place in her heart and she kept dozens and dozens of graduation, wedding and baby announcements, newspaper articles and similar mementos for them in her personal papers. No remembrance of Margaret would be complete without another mention: Scotcheroos! The gooey peanut butter rice crispy bar topped with her mixture of chocolates and butterscotch bits were a favorite at church, home and her grandkids. She was also notorious for other super-sweet concoctions such as fruit cocktail cake, seven layer bars and anything that required whipped topping. A favorite of her grandkids was a layer of sweetened cream cheese atop a creative masterpiece crust of pretzels, graham crackers or finely chopped nuts topped with pudding (pistachio, lemon, or butterscotch) slathered with whipped topping! We know Mom entered the gates of heaven with joy in her heart excited to see her first husband, Delbert Hanson, her son, Doyle Hanson, her parents, sisters Irma, Lilly and Karen and the many others who passed before her. She is survived by her second husband, Lyle Krumm; two daughters Eloise Shipman of Corwith, Iowa and Wendy Hanson of Salt Lake City, Utah; her grandchildren Michael Shipman (Brooke) of Greensboro, North Carolina, Kelly Berte (Calvin) of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and Alexa Hanson Wagner of Salt Lake City, Utah and David Martin (Jacque) of Everett, Washington; her great grandchildren, Victoria Shipman, Cole and Jack Berte; her sister, Ardis Hanson, her sister-in-law Lois Krumm and many adored nieces and nephews. Margaret touched countless lives and modeled a life of devotion, humility, tolerance and service. “Some things are taught and some things are caught,” she would say. She would quote a favorite verse, “today is the day the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” We say our farewells knowing she is where she wants to be. Her final words of comfort to us would have been, “everything will be all right.” Our lives are forever enriched for the joy of having known and loved her. Rest in Peace, Mom There will be an informal open house visitation at Elk Creek Lutheran Church, rural Kensett, on Saturday, January 28, 2023 from 2 to 4pm. Save the date for the Celebration of Life in July 2023. In lieu of flowers, please direct your memorials to the family so they may be given to the organizations that will reflect their mom’s wishes. \\\%Eloise Shipman, 113 St. Louis Boulevard, Corwith, IA 50430.