Anna Margaret Reding Kramer, age 104, passed away on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, at Bethany Home in Dubuque, Iowa. 

The Mass of Christian Burial will be 11:00 AM Saturday, December 28, 2019, at Cathedral of St. Raphael, 231 Bluff St.  Visitation will precede the Mass from 10:00 AM until 11:00 AM at the church.  Burial will be at Visitation Catholic Church Cemetery in Stacyville, Iowa at a later date, to be announced.

Anna was born in Randolph, Nebraska April 20, 1915 and moved with her family at age 3 to Stacyville, Iowa.  James Reding and his brother, John, traveled with the cattle and their families went by train. 

Anna and her siblings attended Visitation grade and high school in Stacyville.  Anna played soprano saxophone in high school and could play clarinet and harmonica as well.  Her twin, Alvena, played violin.  Anna graduated from Visitation High School in 1933 and continued to live on the farm with her parents until she married Ruben Kramer in 1937; in 1939 the couple purchased a farm one mile south of the Reding farm.

Anna and Ruben belonged to and were active in Visitation Catholic Church in Stacyville.  Anna was a 4-H leader and active in her church circle.  Anna and Ruben played cards for entertainment – Solo, 500, Euchre.

Ruben and Anna sold their farm and retired to homes in Osage, Iowa, and Florida.  Ruben was diagnosed with ALS in 1980.  For the last five years of his life, he was ventilator dependent and had decreasing muscle strength; Anna cared for him in their home.  Ruben died in 1990 and Anna continued to live in the Osage home.
Anna moved to a retirement community in Dubuque, Iowa, in 2008 and to a nursing facility in 2018.

Kramer was preceded in death by her parents, James and Anna (Gubbels) Reding,sisters Mary Pitzen (Alfred) and Alvena Brown (Adrian), two brothers, Joseph and Melvin (Bernice), son-in-law J. Monte Pakieser, and great-grandson Ruben Thomas Weibel of Baton Rouge, LA.  She is survived by children Ruth Pakieser Macnamara (J. Terry) of Bennington, Nebraska, Marvin (Louise) of Overland Park, Kansas, Dorothy Jean Kollasch (David) of Verona, Wisconsin, and Kathryn Coyle (Michael) of Dubuque,Iowa, 14 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Anna had a sense of history; living from horse/buggy to the computer age.  She told tales of wandering gypsies, Indians, itinerant tramps, horses and Model T’s on mud roads, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War and working through day-to-day life and weather on the farm.  She was a strong supportive farm wife, cooking for hired men, tending livestock and chickens, field planting and harvesting, gardening, and preserving produce.  Anna had a long and fruitful life.

Anna’s family would like to thank Dr. Konz and her nurse Sherry, Dr. Meuer, Dr. Hunter Fuerste, Dr. Chung, Dr. Nyabuti and the wonderful, caring staffs at Bethany Home, Unity Point Health – Finley Hospital, No Place Like Home, and Hospice of Dubuque for their exceptional care. 

Memorials may be sent to Hospice of Dubuque, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Iowa or Bethany Home. 

Hoffmann Schneider & Kitchen Funeral Home and Cremation Service is in care of the arrangements.