Gertrude Roanne Kooy

Gertrude Roanne Kooy, age 82 of Litchfield, passed away at the Harmony River Living Center on Sunday, April 28, 2024. A funeral service will  be held on Thursday, May 2, 2024 at Johnson-Hagglund Funeral Home in Litchfield at 11:00AM. A visitation will be held 1 hour prior. Burial will follow at 3:30PM at Hillside Cemetery in Lake Wilson, Minnesota. 

Gertrude Roanne Kooy was born on October 14, 1941 in Slayton, MN to Dick and Margaret (Vlieger) Kooy.   The family lived on a farm near Hadley, MN.  Roanne and her sister Lucille and their mother continued living on the farm after Dick died in 1944.  In 1958, they moved to Marshall, MN and Roanne graduated from Marshall high school in 1959.  She worked for a year in Marshall and then moved to Denver, CO where she worked for the government until June of 1962.

At the age of 20, she responded to the Lord’s calling to teach and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   She ministered in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska until her health failed in 2015.  At that time, she moved to an apartment in Litchfield, MN…a place she was comfortable in and close to a park she loved to walk to, the library and shops she would frequent.

Over the years, she had met many folks from all over the United States.  Her greatest joy was writing letters and getting mail from so many friends.  She had an amazing memory of the family connections of those she met over the years.   In recent years, Facebook made it possible for her to stay in touch with hundreds of friends and those inter-related connections she knew so well.  Her comments were frequent and she loved the many pictures. 

Her ministry years gave her the abundant privilege of travel to many special church meetings and annual meetings that included more than trips to Europe and Scandinavia.  She held on to her hymn books in languages from some of those places and pictures of such were on the walls of her apartment.

At the end, Roanne had multiple health challenges, some of which were apparent and some that were not.   The fall she took nearly 6 weeks before her death was a devastating experience in terms of complications that seemed to manifest in new and challenging ways.  She was hospitalized immediately following the fall and again in early April.  Her last days were spent at Harmony River care facility in Hutchinson MN where she received loving care from the staff there and from beloved friends nearby who were her frequent visitors.  When Hospice took over the Friday prior to her death, the comfort and peace provided finally left her seemingly pain free for the final stretch.

Roanne was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Clifford and Elwyn and sister Edith.  She is survived by her sister Lucille and by nieces and nephews as well as multiple cousins.  Lucille and her husband Don, along with their daughter Maggie, her husband Mark and boys are especially grateful to all who kept in touch with her and cared for her the last six weeks of her life.