Maurine Melita Helena (Meyer) Penny died peacefully at Lemay Health and Rehabilitation Facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019. She was 95 years young.

A funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Friday  at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Kiester with the Rev. Bob Stover officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment, with immediate family only, will take place at Rice Lake Cemetery near Kiester before the service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at act.alz.org/ or Pathways Hospice of northern Colorado at pathways-care.org/ways-to-give/. Friends may send condolences to the family at bohlenderfuneralchapel.com. Bruss-Heitner Funeral Home in Wells is handling the arrangements in Minnesota.

Maurine was born Sept. 9, 1924, in rural Bricelyn to Laura and Edward Meyer.

On July 20, 1944, she eloped and married Howard J. Penny, then a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, in Corpus Christy, Texas, where Howard was stationed. She received teaching degrees from Mankato State College in Minnesota and Buena Vista State College in Iowa. She later earned a Master of Arts degree from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. Maurine taught elementary school in Freeborn, as well as Ida Grove, Iowa, and Audubon, Iowa, where she was a special education teacher.

Following the death of her husband in 1989 and her subsequent retirement from teaching, Maurine moved to Fort Collins, where she put her special education teaching skills to work. She tutored many students from local elementary schools with patience and generosity. Thereafter Maurine devoted her time to her home, her garden and her three grandchildren.

Maurine was an avid gardener and baker. Her apple pies, peanut butter cookies and cranberry bread kept her family and friends happy. Maurine also served as a hostess at McDonald’s, where she enjoyed greeting people. She volunteered at the local hospital’s secondhand store, and was a member of the Retired Military Wives Association.

She loved to play bingo, dance the polka, bake and garden. She taught many  the factor of nines trick. She recorded herself reading children’s books. During road trips to visit Grandma and Grandpa, her grandkids listened to her reading to them, while turning the pages when she instructed them to do so.

Maurine is survived by her daughter, LaRae Penny; son, Robert Penny; daughter-in-law, Orly Penny; and grandchildren Deborah, Jonathan and Annette Penny.

She is preceded in death by an infant daughter; infant son, John; and her husband, Howard J. Penny.