A Celebration of Life for Maribeth Nissen will be held on Saturday, May 24, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Nissen Acreage at 4840 10th Ave., Aurelia, IA, 51005.
The family will provide food, a limited selection of sodas and bottled water. Feel free to bring your preferred food and beverages. We invite you to bring a cherished photo or memory of Mary to share aloud, have us read or leave for us to read privately. No RSVP is required.
Maribeth Helen Nissen died on Feb. 2, 2025, at home north of Aurelia. She was 73 years old. Her funeral was Feb. 6. Greenwood-Schubert Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. Maribeth will be buried in Immanuel Lutheran Church cemetery just across the fence from where she lived.
Maribeth Helen Reineking was born July 23, 1951, in Storm Lake to Richard and Marjorie Reineking. She grew up on a farm close to Varina and went to school in Fonda. After graduating, she went to college in Ft. Dodge to be a medical assistant and medical secretary. While her husband was serving in the military in Colorado Springs, she worked for Seven Dentists as a bookkeeper, secretary and receptionist. When her husband got through with the Army, they moved back to Sutherland and Maribeth had several jobs working at a nursing home, locating telephone cables, slipping seven elevators, helped build a bridge south of Paulina and worked at the packing plant in Cherokee for 32 years, before retiring in 2014.
Maribeth always found time to work at Stubs Ranch Kitchen at the Spencer Fair each year. Maribeth married Norman Nissen on April 16, 1972. To that union was blessed with two children, Heidi and Adam.
Maribeth was preceded in death by her parents, Richard and Marjorie Reineking; her brother Merrill and also brother in law, Raymond Grell.
Left to cherish her memory are her husband Norman; daughter Heidi (Aaron) Malek; son Adam (Alanna) Nissen; sisters, Janice Grell and Jean (Gary) Brobst; special cousin Vernon Schofield; and many other relatives and friends from all over.
Maribeth had fun in life — she liked boating and she raced against the men in Figure Eight racing for four years. She loved everyone that was close to her. She planted a lot of flowers and helped a great deal with keeping the acreage looking nice. She liked fixing things that didn't work. After her stroke in 2020 she had to slow way down, but loved getting rides in the golf cart and hot fudge malts from Dairy Queen. We will miss her for the rest of our lives.
