Rita Severson

Rita I. Severson, 96, of Waukon, IA, died Tuesday, September 9, 2025, at Good Samaritan Center in Waukon. Funeral services will be held Saturday, September 13th, at 11:00 AM at Old West Paint Creek Lutheran Church in Waukon, with Deacon Rex Blake officiating. Burial will in the church cemetery. Friends may greet the family from 10:00 AM until the time of services Saturday at the church. In lieu of flowers please make donations out to WinnMed Hospice in Decorah. Martin-Grau Funeral Home in Waukon is handling arrangements.

Rita Irene Severson was born on December 6, 1928, in rural Postville, IA, the daughter of Edwin and Hazel (Brainard) Knuppe. Her father died when she was only two years old and a few years later her mother married Marion Knapp. She was baptized in Postville and started school there until contracting polio at age 13. Following what she described as "a pretty good recovery," she moved in with her grandparents and attended country school between Castalia and Postville finishing the 5th and 6th grade. While there she helped her grandmother with gardening and canning as well as doing some of the milking and field work.

After spending a few years in Des Moines and Sioux City, Rita returned to northeast Iowa and got a job at what was then known as the County Home and later became Makee Manor. One night in Waukon she saw a young man bent over and peeping through a hole in the door at the Opera House where a wedding dance was going on. "What's wrong, are you too cheap to pay to go in?" she asked. That was how she met Harold Leroy Severson. On March 3, 1951, at the St. John's Lutheran Church parsonage in Waukon, Rita and Harold began a marriage that lasted 63 years until Harold's death in 2014. They farmed for shares on a couple of area farms until 1961, when they bought a rural Waukon Farm. For 40 years they farmed, operating a dairy herd, raising hogs, chickens, and grain and Rita was a part of it all; including construction of their new home in 1987.

Rita was a member of Old West Paint Creek Lutheran Church where she was confirmed on June 27, 1954, and later served as a janitor for several years. She enjoyed bowling, fishing, golf, and playing cards with Harold as well as spending winters in Arizona in their motor home or 5th wheel camper. Rita also enjoyed working jigsaw puzzles, needlework, and crochet, and very much enjoyed taking several cruises to destinations in Canada, Mexico, Alaska, and the Caribbean.

Rita is survived by her two siblings: Hazel (Knapp) Kout and her husband Joe of Hazleton, IA, and Roger Knapp of Thailand; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by a daughter Helen Knuppe; her parents; her husband Harold; and six siblings: Roy Knuppe, Ruby (Knuppe) Wickum, Ruth (Knuppe) Waddington, Dorothy (Knuppe) Dennison, Frederick Knapp, and Janice (Knapp) Thielen.

Honorary casketbearers are Pastor Ken Kimball. Casketbearers are Ross Malcom, Steve Nelson, Dustin Ryan, Brad Severson, Scott Severson, and Dennis Soyk.