Ruth J. (Eischen) McKenzie

                                          

 

Ruth J. (Eischen) McKenzie, 61, of Sioux City, Iowa and formerly of Cherokee, Iowa passed gracefully from this life on Wednesday February 13, 2008 at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa following a lengthy illness.

 

Services will be held at 10:00 A.M. Saturday at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, Sioux City, Iowa.  Rev. Merlin Schrad will officiate.  Burial will be in the Maryhill Visitation Cemetery, rural Cherokee, Iowa. Visitation will be Friday from 1:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M., with a scripture service at 7:00 P.M. at Greenwood Funeral Home, Cherokee, Iowa.  Online condolences may be sent at www.greenwoodfuneral.com.

 

Ruth was born April 30, 1946 in Cherokee, Iowa, to Harry and Celestine (Corzilius) Eischen. She was educated in Cherokee and graduated from Immaculate Conception High School in 1964.  She attended Briar Cliff College and graduated with a degree in education in 1968.  She taught in the Audubon, Iowa school district for several years.

In 1970 she married Jim McKenzie at Maryhill.  Ruth was a member of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and sang in the Celebration Choir for many years.  She was in failing health, but adjusted very well to life in the Indian Hills Care Center in Sioux City, Iowa.

 

Survivors include her son, Casey McKenzie, and his wife, Janelle, of LuVerne, Minnesota; her mother, Celestine Eischen, of Cherokee, Iowa; brothers, Leo Eischen, and his wife, Cathy, of Cherokee, Iowa; Ralph Eischen, and his wife, Barb, of Minnetonka, Minnesota; sisters, Monica Eischen and Tony Molton of Atlanta, Georgia; Mary Carnes and her husband, Scott, of Cherokee, Iowa; grandchildren, Britton and Xavier Mckenzie.

 

She was preceded in death by her father Harry (1980).