Ruth Hargens

Services for Mrs. Ruth Hargens, 94, of Spirit Lake, will be 10:30 am Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at First Presbyterian Church in Spirit Lake. Interment will be at Memory Gardens Cemetery in Spirit Lake. Visitation will begin after 4 pm on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 with the family present from 4 - 6 pm at the funeral home. Mrs. Hargens passed away at Hilltop Care Center on November 1, 2012, at ninety-four years of age. Ruth Hendericka Elias Hargens was born the third of 6 children to Arthur and Anna Bauerle Elias on February 18, 1918, on a farm north of West Side, Iowa. She attended Rural School #9 in Arcadia Township and graduated from West Side High School in 1935. The following year, she earned her Rural Teaching Certificate from Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa. After college, Ruth taught for 5 years in a rural school in Carroll County before her marriage to Walter Hargens on January 14, 1941. Together they farmed at Manning, Iowa, until 1952 when they moved with their 2 children to Spirit Lake, because they loved fishing. After the move, she taught grades 1-3 for 2 years at North Superior School before finding her true calling teaching kindergarten for 26 years in Arnolds Park. She once calculated that she had taught over 800 kindergarteners. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from the University of South Dakota in 1976, just 4 years before she retired. Ruth was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, where she sang in the choir for many years. She was a life member of the ISEA and NEA teaching organizations. She was a very active member in the Chi Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Sorority. From age 5, Ruth had three wishes: to have curly hair, to learn to play the piano and to be a teacher. She was thrilled that all three wishes were granted. She loved flowers, both inside her house and outside in her garden. She loved birds and maintained a row of 14 bird feeders that she could enjoy from her kitchen window. She enjoyed knitting and crocheting, teaching classes in both, and shared many of her needlework and craft creations with family and friends. She loved playing her organ, and on birthdays called and anonymously played Happy Birthday to friends and relatives. Walter and Ruth enjoyed playing cards and during the summers and upon her retirement from teaching in 1980, the two of them enjoyed traveling. They especially enjoyed their trips to California to see daughter Joyce and to wherever son Roger was currently stationed in the military. They took pride in the fact that they had visited 47 of the 48 contiguous United States. In the early 2000's Ruth lost most of her eyesight to macular degeneration and in 2003, Ruth moved into Hilltop Care Center in Spirit Lake where, thanks to a good memory and clever hands, she continued to enjoy crocheting her oven towels until the age of 94. In addition to her parents, Ruth was preceded in death by her husband, Walter, in 1989, sister Pauline Kruse, and brothers Harold Elias (in infancy), Wilbert Elias, and Earl Elias. She is survived by son Roger and wife Sue of Spirit Lake, daughter Joyce Revlett, and husband Charles of Oceanside, California; 2 granddaughters, Kathy Hargens and husband Craig Mittler of Hoboken, NJ, and Debbie Hargens and partner Ben Nelson of Des Moines; a great grandson, Kai Mittler of Hoboken, NJ.; a sister, Garnet Stribe of Manning, IA., and several nieces, nephews and cousins.