Polashek, Rosaline Louise (Trubl)

Rosaline Louise (Trubl) Polashek of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 85, died Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, at Northbrook Manor Care Center, Cedar Rapids. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, at St. Pius X Catholic Church, Cedar Rapids, with the Rev. Phil Thompson officiating. Visitation will be from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Murdoch-Linwood Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Cedar Rapids, with a 4:30 p.m. rosary, followed by Florence Nightingale Tribute and a Scripture service at 7 p.m. An additional memorial mass will be held at a later date at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Protivin where she lived with her husband, Jerry Polashek, for 22 years. Burial will be at Holy Trinity Cemetery.

Rosie was born Aug. 22, 1927, to Louis John and Lillian Emma (Hosek) Trubl on their farm five miles west of St. Paul, Neb. She attended Stony Point one room country school through eighth grade and graduated from St. Paul High School in 1945. She married Gerald Emil Polashek on Oct. 9, 1946, at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in St. Paul. The couple first lived on Jerry's parents' farm near Protivin; then in Protivin; next on Rosie's parents' farm near St. Paul, Neb.; and finally again in Protivin. They spent the following years raising 11 children, with Rosie working off and on with her husband in his butcher shops. The couple then moved to Cedar Rapids in 1969 where Jerry died in 1973 when his car was struck by a train. Rosie raised eight children on her own while working as a nurse for many years, earning her RN in 1976, retiring in 1992, and moving to a condo in 1993. Since July 2010 until her death Rosie resided at Garnett Place and Northbrook Manor care facilities.

Rosie was a member of the Protivin American Legion Auxiliary (county president), Linn County Farm Bureau Women's Chorus, American Business Women's Association (membership chair) and Iowa Nurse's Association. She was also a 4-H leader/assistant, Girl Scout Leader/assistant and a volunteer at Mercy and St. Luke's Hospitals. She was a member of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids and later a charter member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Hiawatha. At St. Pius, she was a member of Dominic Club, All-Church Singles, church choir, card clubs, Bingo volunteers, Pieta group and St. Anne Group. At St. Elizabeth, she was a member of the regular and guitar choirs.

She loved growing roses and often took them to church or shared them with others. Rosie enjoyed playing cards, Bingo, gardening, crocheting, knitting, sewing, bowling, singing, dancing and Czech music. She earned the Iowa Farm Bureau Mother of the Year Award in 1986.

Rosie is survived by her 11 children, David of Oconto Falls, Wis.; Cathy (Steve) Berry of Eau Claire, Wis.; Mary (Bill) Cummings of Cedar Rapids; Eloise (Paul) Whiffen of Tomakin, NSW, Australia; Betty Weaver of Cedar Rapids; Susan (Daniel) Martinek of Cedar Rapids; Martha (Michael) Shoemaker of Norwalk; Emil (Mary Kay) of Ames; Carol (Jon) Thompson of Mundelein, Ill.; Tony (Gail) of Shamong, N.J.; and Francis (Dina) of O'Fallon, Mo.; 27 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Louis in 1973 and Lillian in 1986; husband, Jerry in 1973; infant brother, sister, Lydia in 1973; and two infant sons, Jerry in 1951 and William in 1953.

Please sign the online guest book for Rosie at under obituaries.

Published in The Gazette Feb. 5, 2013.