Elsie Sieck
Jan. 8, 1918 - Feb. 5, 2008

Elsie Sieck, 90, of Crook, went home to her Lord and Savior on Feb. 5, 2008. Visitation will be from 1 to 6 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 10 at Chaney-Reager Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 11 at United Church of Crook, with the Rev. Dave Tyree and Rod Hurst officiating. Graveside services will be at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, at Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheatridge.

Elsie Fern Steinhausen was born Jan. 8, 1918, on the farm adjacent to her grandfather's — about 12 miles southwest of Lincoln, Neb. She was the second of five children born to Roy and Jessie (Burgess) Steinhausen.

The family moved into a two-story house one-quarter mile from Rokeby, Neb., in 1921. It was on the main line of the Rock Island Railroad. She remembered her grandparents taking her on that train to Lincoln to shop.

She lived one-half mile from the Rokeby School, where she went all 12 years. Then she attended Nebraska Wesleyan University in University Place, graduating in 1939. She taught school until she married her Navy sweetheart on Oct. 12, 1945. Six children were born — three girls and three boys.

They moved their family to Wheatridge in 1958. In November of that year, their second daughter, who was 11, died following surgery to remove a cyst over a small tumor. The remaining five graduated from Wheatridge High School.

She worked for a short time at Mountain View nursing home. She took nine hours of graduate work at the University of Colorado in Boulder to validate her teacher's certificate. Elsie did five years of substitute teaching in Jefferson County. She served two years as president of the Fruitdale Elementary PTA and then two years as treasurer of the Jefferson Avenue United Methodist Women before moving to a ranch in eastern Colorado in 1985. In 1993, they moved to the town of Crook, where she spent her final days. She succumbed to a rare merkel cell skin cancer.

Elise accepted Christ as her Savior at the age of 10 while attending Wesley Chapel E.M. Church - later the United Church of Christ - in Rokeby, Neb. She attended a uniting service in Kansas City, Mo. It was the furthest she had ever been away from home at that time.

Elsie's passions were her relationship with God, her family, cooking, gardening and canning.

Her survivors include her husband, Truman of Crook; five children and spouses, Barbara Noonan and husband Jerry of Tenino, Wash., John Sieck and wife Belva of Crook, Betty Christel and husband Frank of Owasso, Okla., Bill Sieck and wife Carlyn of Colorado Springs, and Wayne Sieck and wife Gaila of Crook,; 13 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; four siblings, Marie Maus of Tucson, Ariz., Mark Steinhausen of Lincoln, Neb., Opal Buchta of Broken Bow, Neb., and Hilda Jacobsen of Firth, Neb.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Hospice of the Plains, 411 W. Main, Sterling, Co. 80751, or United Church of Crook, Crook, Co. 80726.