Kendra Marie Blietz

Kendra Marie Blietz

Iowa City

Kendra Marie Blietz, 28, died peacefully Friday, January 24, 2025.

Family and friends will gather to celebrate Kendra’s life on Friday, February 7, 2025 from 4 PM to 6 PM at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service, Iowa City. A Time of Sharing will begin at 4:30 PM.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to ARC of East Central Iowa, 680 2nd St. SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401.

Kendra was an exceptional human being with the remarkable ability to see things through her own unique perspective. She was born on July 9, 1996 in Cedar Rapids, the daughter of Brandon and Denise (Zimmermann) Blietz. In 2015 Kendra graduated from Kennedy High School.

Before Kendra was 5 years old, she could take apart a 100-piece puzzle and master it in less than 20 minutes. By the time she was 10 years old Kendra had mastered puzzles that were 500 to 1,000 pieces, always completing them with relative ease.

Her insatiable curiosity had no bounds. Kendra taught herself how to read with closed captions from the hundreds of Disney films in her collection. Her attempts at learning to sing were experienced by all. Often her voice exceeded tolerable volume levels. Unbeknownst to her own limitations.

Her intelligence defied explanation and was confounding to doctors, her parents, her sibling, and caregivers. Kendra had so much to teach all of us, but did not have the voice to carry it out. Instead, she used her actions to speak. We called her Tinkerbell because of her beautiful blonde hair and her inexplicable ability to tell us exactly how she felt without speaking a word. We knew when she was tired, annoyed, or just plain done with a situation.

Kendra is survived by her parents, Brandon and Denise of Wellman; her sister Adrian Zimmermann of Hills; her grandmothers, Angela and Michelle; and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.

She was preceded in death by her grandfathers.

Online condolences at www.lensingfuneral.com.