Marie Hensch, 100, Hills, formerly of Luverne, died Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003, at Mary Jane Brown Good Samaritan Center in Luverne. She was the mother of Ardith Tofteland, Luverne.Services were Monday, Oct. 6, at St. John Lutheran Church rural Boyden, Iowa. The Rev. Michelle Rowell officiated. Burial was in St. John Lutheran Cemetery. Marie Metta Hundt was born to Peter Herman and Anna (Winter) Hundt on July 16 1903, at Wheeler Township in rural Lyon County, Iowa. She attended school at Wheeler No. 9 through the eighth grade. She continued her education at St. John Parochial School for two years and then attended Wartburg Normal College in Waverly, Iowa, graduating in 1925. She began teaching at Wheeler No. 9 in rural Lyon County. She taught there for 10 years from 1925-1935, teaching all eight grades. For the next five years, she taught fifth through eighth grades at St. John Lutheran School. She married Walter Hensch on June 9, 1940, at St. John Lutheran Church in Boyden. For the next two years they farmed near Hartley, Iowa. They then farmed in the Boyden and Hull area until their retirement. While on the farm, she milked cows by hand, gardened, baked, preserved food and raised large flocks of geese and ducks. They moved to Rock Rapids, Iowa, in 1984. Mr. Hensch died in 1988. She continued to live in Rock Rapids until moving to The Oaks in Luverne in 1998. In 2001, she moved to Tuff Village in Hills and lived there until September 2003 when she moved to Mary Jane Brown Good Samaritan Center in Luverne. She attended three two-month-long summer German language school sessions which prepared her for translating early records of area churches. In her retirement years, she translated records of several area churches. Mrs. Hensch was a lifelong member of St. John Lutheran Church in Boyden where she had served as Sunday School superintendent and was active in the Dorcas Society. Survivors include her two daughters, Ardith (Walter) Tofteland, Luverne, and Ruth (Duane) Auckland, Des Moines, Wash.; two grandchildren, David Tofteland and Anne Tofteland and her husband, Daniel Holtey, all of Edina; and one-great-grandchild, Bjorn Holtey. Mrs. Hensch was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Walter, and infant daughter, Margaret, a brother, Henry Hundt, and a sister, Elsie Kruse.Roste Funeral Home in Rock Rapids, was in charge of arrangements.
