Rose Bruene, 88, of Marion, IA formerly of Gladbrook, IA passed away Sunday, March 18, 2012, at her home in Bickford Cottage, in Marion. Funeral services will be 11:00 a.m., Friday, March 23, 2012, at the Salem Church of Lincoln, IA. Visitation will be at the church 9:00 a.m. until the time of the funeral services.. Interment will be at Badger Hill Cemetery in rural Gladbrook. Memorials will be directed to Rose and Dick Bruene Agricultural Scholarship Fund or Lincoln Salem Church. The Goettsch Funeral Home in Gladbrook has been entrusted with the arrangements.

Rose Loretta Hartford was born April 3, 1923, to Harrison and Isabella Hartford, Hancock, Wisconsin. She graduated from Wautoma High School. Moving to Rockford, Illinois, in 1940, she worked as a secretary in a New Deal program and as a mother's helper. There she met and married Lt. Richard Bruene. They were wed June 20, 1943, at Centennial Methodist Church, Rockford. While he spent the next two years in England, serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, she attended Iowa State College in Ames. For the next 50 years they farmed near Gladbrook, Iowa. Rose was active in the community, serving as 4-H leader and Sunday School teacher, in women's groups and as board member of Lincoln Salem Church. In 1977 she earned an LPN Nursing degree from Marshalltown Community College and worked at Villa D Sol in Marshalltown for 10 years. She continued her membership in Alpha Study Group in Gladbrook after she and Richard moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2000. He died April of 2008.

Rose is survived by three daughters: Denise (Bart) Baker of Bettendorf, IA; Deb (Matt) Roach of Cedar Rapids, and Janna Bruene of Boston, Massachusetts. And three granddaughters, Alison (Erik) Jensen, Denver, Colorado; Andrea Baker, Kansas City, Missouri; and Kelly Roach, Wichita, Kansas; two sisters, Eileen (Willard) Christensen of Wautoma, WI, and Joanne (Jim) Dunn, Pardeeville, WI, and two brothers, Delbert (Dorla) Hartford of Alder, MT and Vernon (Barb) Hartford of Hancock, WI, nieces and nephews, and special people who lived for a time with Bruenes and are like family She was preceded in death by her parents, four brothers, two sisters, and a grandson