Anderson, Maxine

Maxine Anderson, 89, died peacefully Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, in Virginia Gay Hospital Nursing and Rehab, Vinton, following an extended illness. Services: 10:30 a.m. Friday, First Christian Church, Vinton, with the Rev. Connie Wacht officiating. Interment: Evergreen Cemetery, Vinton. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Van Steenhuyse-Russell Funeral Home and from 9:30 a.m. until service time Friday at the church.

Mary Maxine Anderson was born Jan. 15, 1920, in Vinton, Iowa, the daughter of DeVere and Bertha Pollock Crisman. She grew up on a farm north of Vinton, and attended school in Vinton, graduating in 1937. On Sept. 25, 1937, she married Leonard Anderson in Cedar Rapids. Leonard and Maxine lived in Vinton, where Maxine was active in the First Christian Church as a member of the choir and Christian Women's Fellowship. Maxine was happy and content to be a wife, mother and grandmother and never wanted to be anything else. She enjoyed knitting, playing cards, crossword puzzles and quilting, but her true love was her family.

Maxine is survived by her two sons, Gary (Carol) Anderson of Overland Park, Kan., and Mark (Jennie) Anderson, Vinton; her daughter, Wendy (Charles) Schmitz, Mesa, Ariz.; eight grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; her sister, Marjory (Glen) Thompson, Fort Dodge; and sister-in-law, Jane Crisman of Coon Rapids.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Leonard on March 18, 2001; her parents; brothers, Jay and Lyle Crisman; and sister, Audrey Strait.

The family will direct memorials to the First Christian Church.

Van Steenhuyse-Russell Funeral Home is caring for Maxine and her family.

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