David Ganoe

David Edward Ganoe was born on December 29, 1923 to William Ganoe and Madeline Derry in rural Greene County and died at his home on Mar. 6 at the age of 90 years. David spent the first few years of his life living with his grandparents, Marshall and Mary Derry near Bayard. He returned to live on the farm near Jefferson with his parents until he met Martha Nodulski, when she and her sister were singing at the Pleasant Hill Church southeast of Jefferson. David and Martha were married at the Rippey Methodist Church on August 5, 1943. The couple lived for short time on a small farm near Jefferson. They then moved to Martha’s home place, a farm near Guthrie Center. During their time at her home place, all three of their children, Carol, Butch and Joy were born in the same house as Martha had been born. In 1951, the family moved to a farm in the Jefferson area on Rural Route 4 and then lived on several other farms before moving to their current location with all those farms having a Rural Route 4 address. David started farming and logging with horses in the 40’s. In the early 50’s, he changed over to farming with tractors but still kept horses for many years to come. In the early 60’s, David was the first farmer in the area to buy a “big” 706 IH tractor. Of course the neighbors kidded him about his purchase, but when the dealership asked to demonstrate the tractor at a local plowing demonstration they became believers and other big tractors started showing up in neighboring fields. In 2013, David and Martha celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with family and friends. David also celebrated his 90th birthday with family and friends and other residents at Regency Park in Jefferson in December 2013.

David is survived by his wife of 70 years, Martha; children: Carol Creger of Jefferson, Francis (Butch) Ganoe (Karen) of Jefferson and Joy Luedtke (Orville) of Des Moines; nine grandchildren: Bill Cloninger (Sandra) of Jefferson, Angie Happle (Dean) of Houston, Minnesota, Lana Titus of Des Moines, Brenda Ganoe (fiancé Wes) of North Carolina, Dale Ganoe (Jody) of Jefferson, Kay Venteicher-Shulman (Tom Burrell) of Woodbridge, VA, Eugene Venteicher  (Kristin) Dale City, VA., Terry Venteicher (Cathy) of Des Moines and Shelly Reed (Shaun) of Jefferson; 23 great-grandchildren; six great-great grandchildren; brother Laverne Ganoe (Doris) of Central City; sisters: Mary Ellen Lloyd of Bayard and Alice Louise Brown of Denison; aunt Lorraine (Derry) Marks of Jefferson; uncle Everett Derry of Bayard; other family and many friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brother Donald; sister Kathryn and her husband Richard (Dick) Murphy; brothers-in-law Jack Lloyd and Wayne (Red) Brown; son-in-law Lowell Creger and several aunts and uncles.

Funeral services for David Edward Ganoe were held at 10 a.m. Mar. 11 at Hastings Funeral Home in Jefferson. Visitation with family was held Mar. 10 from 5-7 p.m. at the funeral home. Words of comfort were given by Bruce R. Webster of the Church of Christ in Jefferson and Pastor Larry Monthei of the Hope United Methodist Parish of Cooper. Kenny and Deb Monthei sang two Hymns; In The Garden and How Great Thou Art.

Honorary casket bearers were David’s grandchildren, great great-grandchildren and Verle Bennett. Casket bearers were Bill Cloninger, Dale Ganoe, Steve Derry, Tom Burrell, Doug Carman and Nelson Carman. Burial was in the Jefferson Cemetery, Jefferson. A lunch followed at the Church of Christ in Jefferson.

Memorials to the family may be sent to the  Hastings Funeral Home PO Box 253, Jefferson, Iowa 50129  

Hastings Funeral Home in Jefferson, 515-386-8181, www.hastings.funeralplan2.com