Marvel Elsa Kruse, one of ten children of Ferdinand Carl and Meta (Kruse) Miller, was born on a farm northeast of Glenwood, Iowa on December 21, 1918. She was baptized and confirmed at St. John Lutheran Church in Mineola, Iowa and attended Evernham country school near her home. After completing school, Marvel helped her parents with the farm chores and housekeeping. Marvel also helped her older sisters as they married and began their families.

Marvel and Robert Frederick Kruse were married at St. John Lutheran Church in Mineola on February 20, 1946. Marvel enjoyed being a farmwife and homemaker. Their marriage was blessed with a son Kendal and daughter Mardeen. Kendal was tragically killed in action on March 29, 1968 in Vietnam. Marvel and Robert continued to farm near Mineola until 1973 when Robert retired and they moved to Glenwood, Iowa. Marvel worked part-time as a receptionist at Raynor-Lett & Kent Funeral Home in Glenwood.

Marvel and Robert had been married 53 years when Robert died on March 30, 1999 at the age of 84. Marvel continued to live in her home until moving to the Tabor Manor Care Center on April 23rd of this year. She died at the Jennie Edmundson Memorial Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa on April 27, 2007 at the age of 88 years, 4 months, and 6 days. In addition to her husband Robert and son Kendal, Marvel was preceded in death by her parents, infant brother Emil and four year old sister Eunice; sisters Leona Schoening and her husband Earl, Lillie Scheel and her husband Roy, Frances Scheel and her husband Donald; brothers-in-law Edwin Leu, Harold Scheel, Myron Rohrberg, and Robert Deacon; and son-in-law Austen Moss.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established.

Interment will be in the Mineola Cemetery.