Courier News

Courtesy of the January 20, 2014 edition of the on-line Ida County Courier - www.idacountycourier.com

German exchange students connect

It’s a small world we live in; just ask Vanessa Buff and Lydia Schubert, two young girls who came to America as foreign exchange students.

Buff, of Sachsen Brun, Germany, is attending Trinity School System in Euless, Texas, and living with the Jerry and Tracy (Wareham) Church family. Tracy is the daughter of Jim and Karen Wareham of Odebolt.

Schubert, of Floh-Seligenthal, Germany, is attending school at O-A/BC-IG High School and lives with the Jason and Janet Gritten family in Odebolt. Both girls come from the Thuringen Deutschland Districk Villages.

On Christmas, both girls came to the Wareham home in Odebolt to visit the family and to meet each other. The girls found out they only lived 28 miles from each other in Germany.


Obituary
Ardis A. Brownlee          March 31, 1937 –Jan. 14, 2014
SIOUX CITY –Services for Ardis A. Brownlee, 76, of Sioux City were Jan. 15, 2014, at Waterbury Funeral Home in Sergeant Bluff. She was cremated and interment will be held at a later date at Graceland Cemetery in Sioux City.

She passed away Jan. 14 at her residence.

Ardis Ann Brownlee was born March 31, 1937, in Arthur, daughter of Eldred and Dorothy (Riley) Skaren. She attended school and grew up in the Arthur community.

She married the love of her life, James Brownlee, Aug. 10, 1954, at the Winebrenner Church of God parsonage, in Ida Grove. During their 60 years of marriage, they lived in Holstein, Odebolt and Storm Lake, and settled in Sioux City in 1973.

Ardis was a wife, mother and grandmother and took great satisfaction in spending time with her family. Her household always had room for a family-friendly, small dog or cat, which she loved to cuddle and pamper.

She was always very proud of the fact that she was a member of the state qualifying basketball team from the small Arthur Community School in 1953, holding the position of all-star pivot forward.

Ardis leaves to mourn her passing her husband, Jim, of Sioux City; her daughter, Susan (Rick) Krogh of Lincoln, Neb., and her son, Scott, of Sioux City.

Also surviving are eight grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; surviving spouses of all her brothers and sisters; her sisters-in-law; and many friends, nieces and nephews who will cherish her memory.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her daughter, Pamela Douglas (Feb. 4, 2013); her younger brothers, Dennis Skaren and Edward Skaren (Nov. 16, 2013); and her younger sisters, Joyce Mc-Donough and Colleen Johnson.

She was also preceded in death by a brother-in-law, Raymond Williams; a brother-in-law and his wife, Jerry and Sandy Brownlee; and a sister-in-law, Donna Mae Smith.