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Elise Butcher
ELISE BUTCHER
Iowa City
Elise Theresie Butcher, 95, of Iowa City, died Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, at Legacy Senior Living Community in Iowa City.
Elise was married to Chief Warrant Officer 4
Howard Lewis Butcher for 59 years.
Burial will be in Rock
Island National Cemetery, Rock Island, Ill., where she will be united with her
husband, who died Oct. 23, 2012.
Elise was born Aug. 22, 1918, in Barenstein, Germany, the daughter of Albina Sofia Mathilde Goetze of Germany and Basil Vogtli of Switzerland. She was united in marriage to
Howard L. Butcher on May 16, 1953, in Heidelberg,
Germany.
Elise and Howard were fatefully united after she saved his life in a head-on collision with another car on a highway in Germany by pulling Howard away from the driver's side of the car at moment of impact. Her husband would state repeatedly over the years, "if it were not for
Elisa, I would not have a life." Once married, she
immigrated to the United States, where she raised the children and worked as a medical and dental assistant. She later had a career with Avon with the honor of achieving Presidents Club more than 20 times and was the top Avon seller in her North Carolina district multiple times.
She lived with her family in the Wrightstown and Browns Mills area of New Jersey for 16 years and then she and her husband moved to Fayetteville, N.C., where they lived for over 30 years.
Elisa and her husband moved to Iowa City in August 2012 to be near family.
Survivors include children, Ingeborg G. Wilson of Alamogordo, N.M., Renate I. Jenkins of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Howard Karl Butcher, associate professor at the University of Iowa, and Anita D. Gatica of Sierra Vista, Ariz.; and her grandchildren, Ben Jenkins of Charlotte, N.C., Michelle Neier of Fayetteville, N.C., Andrea Gatica Flores of Sierra Vista, Ariz., and Nyah S. Taylor-Butcher of Iowa City; and three great-grandchildren.
The family wishes to extend their deepest gratitude to Heartfields Assisted Living in Cary, N.C., and all the staff at Legacy Gardens in Iowa City, especially Johanna Kennedy, RN, director of nursing; Jeanette Sedam, Misty Christner, Danielle Hodges and Priscilla Hauser for all their exceptional and compassionate care. The family also extends their deep gratitude to Hospice Compassus of Cedar Rapids for its most excellent care and coordination and to Father Rudy Juarez of St. Patrick Catholic Church of Iowa City.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at
www.lensingfuneral.com.
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