Ruth Sendelbach

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Ruth Ann Sendelbach, 92, of Wells, died Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, at Season’s Hospice in Rochester. A Mass of Christian burial will be held Friday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Casimir Catholic Church in Wells. The Rev. Eugene Stenzel will officiate. Visitation will be Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at Bruss-Heitner Funeral Home in Wells, with a prayer service at 7 p.m.; with visitation continuing one hour prior to the service at the church with a rosary at 9:30 a.m. Burial will be in St. Casimir Cemetery in Wells.
Ruth Ann Sendelbach was born Sept. 26, 1916, at the family home in Owatonna, the youngest of eight children born to Peter Leo and Anna (Petranek) Steinbauer. Ruth Ann graduated from Owatonna High School, the class of 1934, where she was active in Drama Club and swimming. She had worked in a bakery then became the first employee of Uber Glove Factory in Owatonna. She became line foreman in the glove dept and made patterns and sewed gloves for people with missing/deformed hands. An accomplished seamstress, she often sewed her own clothes and later made her daughter’s doll clothes without patterns. On Aug. 22, 1946, she was united in marriage to Joseph John Sendelbach at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Owatonna. Ruth Ann moved to Wells after her marriage and assisted her husband on the farm. She is known for her exquisite flower beds, huge garden, her frozen strawberries and raspberries, homemade dill pickles, gigantic cauliflowers, cabbages and pumpkins. She enjoyed bird watching and feeding them. Ruth Ann was a member of St. Casimir Catholic Church, the Rosary society, and she sang in the church choir from 1946-1969, often for weddings.
She is survived by her daughter, Kristine Sendelbach of Austin; sister-in-law, June Steinbauer of St. Peter; along with numerous nieces and nephews.
She is preceded in death by her parents; husband, Joe in 2005; two sisters: Gertrude Gronert and Sr. Marie Jean Theophane Steinbauer; five brothers: George (Cecelia), Clarence (Frances), Victor (Bernadette), Paul (in childhood), and Albert Steinbauer.