Ruth E. Dumkrieger Mueller, 89, formerly of Sioux City, Iowa, passed away at assisted living in Aberdeen, South Dakota, surrounded by her children, Thursday, January 2, 2025.
A Celebration of Life is tentatively planned for Saturday, May 10, 2025, at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa. Her ashes will be buried near her parents’ graves in the Loess Hills.
Ruth Dumkrieger was born on December 20, 1935, in Mountain Lake, Minnesota. The daughter of Floyd Dumkrieger and G. Irene Larsen, she grew up with her younger brother, Fred, on their family farm in the Loess Hills near Soldier. Ruth graduated as valedictorian of her high school class in 1953 and won a scholarship to the University of Northern Iowa. Instead, she chose to move to Sioux City, Iowa with her friend Carma. (Once her children were grown, Ruth did take several college classes.)
Ruth and Carma worked at St. Joseph Hospital as nurse’s aides and lived at Shesler Hall, where Ruth made other friends, including Jan Rees. Soon, Ruth got a job at Postal Finance as a clerk. Then, after passing the Civil Service Exam, she worked as executive secretary at the Sioux City Air Base. Through another friend at Shesler Hall, Ruth met George Mueller, and they got engaged on St. Patrick’s Day. They married on June 16, 1957, at Trinity Lutheran Church, where Ruth had been baptized and confirmed in 1953. She resigned from the Air Base when she had her first-born son, Jim, followed by daughter Pam, son John, and daughter Penni. Later in life, she worked as an executive secretary at IPS and then State Farm Insurance.
Ruth had a lifelong passion for journalism and writing. She documented her family’s lives with a yearly scrapbook and annual Christmas letter. She researched and wrote genealogies for both sides of the family. You could often find Ruth writing by hand or hear the clickety-clack of her Royal typewriter. She wrote many stories based on family lore, whether a rocking chair traveling from Norway to America or a perilous horseback ride by her grandmother Minnie across the prairie to fetch a doctor. She published an essay about the Holy Spirit in Lutheran Women.
She was active in her church community and her children’s lives. At St. Luke Lutheran Church, she was a member of W.E.L.C.A. (Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church), she taught Vacation Bible School, and she was part of the altar guild. It was important for her to raise her children in the Lutheran church because she did not have that growing up. All her children were baptized, had their first communion, and were confirmed, which made her proud. She served as a den mother for the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts, as an assistant leader of 4-H, and on the PTA.
The family took vacations to the Black Hills, Pikes Peak, Adventureland, and Ottertail Lake when the kids were growing up. But the children’s favorite destination was the farm in Soldier, where they went often to see their grandparents and uncle. On their 25th wedding anniversary, Ruth and George took their first empty-nest trip to Idaho to visit Jan (Rees) Sparling and her family. Every year after that, they relished planning a two-week vacation each summer to a new place in the United States or Canada. Ruth’s favorite trip was to Nova Scotia. Ruth and George loved visiting their children and grandchildren in New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, and South Dakota.
Some things Ruth was known for were her Christian faith; a listening and empathetic ear; a love of learning, whether Bible studies or college classes, including spirited discussions; sharing cups of coffee and conversation at her table with family and friends; a keen sense of humor; her joy for greeting cards and letters; the lore of the Loess Hills; and compassion for everyone she met. But her greatest loves were her children, her grandsons, and her great granddaughters. She was so proud of them, and she loved them, and in return, they loved her back. In God’s perfect timing, Ruth enjoyed one last gathering of all her descendants on December 15, 2024, to celebrate birthdays and Christmas. In her last years, just as she had been devoted to them, her daughters were devoted to her, making sure to be there every evening. She was not alone.
Ruth was a voracious reader her entire life. Some of her favorite works were the King James Bible, The Glass Menagerie, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and The Hiding Place. The last book series she truly enjoyed was the No. 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. She also loved the movie Brigadoon. Growing up, she was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and she kept scrapbooks of newspaper clippings about the Dodgers and her favorite player, Jackie Robinson. This summer, she watched the LA Dodgers win the World Series in New York City with her daughters and Carol Graf, a family friend.
As a young woman, Ruth prayed that she might “breathe deeply from all of life’s roses, even if it meant the prick of life’s thorns.” In the 60’s, she was an active member of Heart Mothers, a support group for mothers of children with heart defects. Through its Catholic members, she was introduced to the Carmelite nuns, with whom she forged a lifelong spiritual connection. She loved the mysticism of the Catholic church, where she learned of Saint Therese, The Little Flower of Jesus. Throughout her life, Ruth’s faith allowed her to receive roses, literally and figurately, as signs from God. Two days before Ruth passed, Mother Joseph called and prayed that Saint Therese would send Ruth a rose. On the day Ruth passed, her daughters called to tell Mother Joseph, who exclaimed that it was Saint Therese’s birthday. A prayer answered and a final earthly rose for Ruth.
Ruth is survived by her children Jim (Linda Johnston) Mueller, Pam (Darrell) Fluent, John (Kay) Mueller, and Penni (Patrick Whiteley) Pearson, her grandchildren Zach (Morgan) Mueller and Lukas Mueller, her great grandchildren Zailey Ophelia and Zayla “Ruthie” Mueller, her brother Fred (Marcia) Dumkrieger, her sister-in-law Lois (Eldon) Zellmer, her brother-in-law Alan (Pam) Mueller, her cousins Diane (Roberts) Krueger and Danny Roberts, her many nieces and nephews and other cousins, her close friends Carma (Swain) Garey, Ruby (Longlee) Hebb, and Mother Joseph and the Carmelite nuns.
She was preceded in death by her husband George, her mother Irene, her father Floyd, and many of her friends, including Edith Stanley, Sylvia Emerson, Edith Cline, Opal Sheehan, Jan (Rees) Sparling, and Mother Therese. (Apologies to anyone who was overlooked.)
Ruth declined over her final years due to Parkinson’s Disease Dementia (PDD). Ruth’s children would like to thank the med techs and aides and all others who cared for her at the three assisted living facilities in IA and SD where Ruth spent her final years.
Ruth will be missed by all who loved her, and she will remain in their hearts.
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