Koeppen, Rita Maxine

Rita Maxine Koeppen, 96, of Marion, died peacefully Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011, at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids with her children at her side. Funeral Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, by the Rev. Mike Morgan at Murdoch Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Marion. Family will greet friends from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Inurnment will be at Blodgett Cemetery in rural Central City. Survivors include her daughter, Deborah Fuller Dreckman of Mission Viejo, Calif.; her son, Douglas (Pam) Fuller of Marion; four grandchildren, who were so fortunate to grow up with her so close by, David Dreckman and Steven Dreckman of Cedar Rapids, William Fuller of Orange, Calif., and Jessica Fuller of New Hampton; a nephew, Wilfred “Sonny” Wilkinson of Marion; and four great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Fern Mills, Luella Wilkinson, Wilma Palmer and Darlene Cunningham; and her brothers, Donald Mills and William Joe Mills.

Rita was born April 6, 1915, in Paris, Iowa, the daughter of William and Charity Ann “Anna” (Sommers) Mills. She was a graduate of Central City High School Class of 1934. She met Otto Koeppen in Marion, while working at the Marion Theatre where “everyone knew her name.” On Feb. 10, 1952, she married Ott and he became her husband of 26 years and father to her children from a prior marriage, Deborah and Doug.

Rita was an active member of the First United Methodist Church in Marion, Marion Business Women, the WIN group and her book club. She was an avid reader from the time she discovered “Little Women” but admitted to not sticking to the classics, preferring her not-so-secret addiction to romance novels. She was a Cubs fan extraordinaire, as was her father before her, and she passed this passion on to the next three generations!

Rita's hands were always busy with knitting needles, embroidery hoops and thread, and doll clothes in progress. She loved her Lord and her church, and leaves behind her well used, worn Bible held together, after all these years, with rubber bands. And, with her leaving, there will be a huge hole in the group of women who sat together each Sunday, as well as in their hearts.

Our mother, grandmother and great-grandmother always said the love of her life was her children. And as each new child came into the circle of her life, she enveloped them with love. She became “Mimi” to them and Aunt Rita to her friends' children.

We will miss the soft hands that soothed us, the gentle voice that told us to “pick our battles” and the woman whose love somehow always made our world safer and more secure. She will never see her Cubs win the World Series, she won't hold a great-great-grandchild, and the Linn County Settlers Reunion will have a new “oldest” resident next year; however, she lived the life she wanted with strength and compassion, and she slipped into God's hands as she wanted, peacefully in her children's arms.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the First United Methodist Church of Marion.

Please sign our online guest book for Rita at under obituaries.

Published in The Gazette Oct. 25, 2011.