Thomas Bowers Knipe

NOTICE: Larchwood, IA Thomas Bowers Knipe, age 105 of Larchwood, IA died January 3, 2008 the Fellowship Village in Inwood, IA. Funeral service will be 1:00 PM, Monday, Jan. 7th at the Jurrens Funeral Home of Larchwood, with Rev. Kelly Volk officiating. Burial will follow at the Larchwood Cemetery in Larchwood. Visitation will be Monday, Jan. 7th from 12 " 1:00 PM at the Jurrens Funeral Home of Larchwood. Thomas Bowers Knipe was born on December 20, 1902, the son of George and Jenny Knipe. He was the oldest of three children. Tom went to public school starting at the age of seven, and in high school was active in basketball, baseball, and band. When he was in a band, he played the clarinet, violin, three saxophones, and drums. For several years he led the Tom Knipe Orchestra. His jobs following high school included running a taxi service, working for the electric plant and at a blacksmith workshop called Sioux Steel, hauling blacktop for Wagner Construction in Sioux Falls, and putting truck boxes together for Shotwell and Dempsters. He was united in marriage to Mabel Kaderabek on March 12, 1945 at Sioux Falls, SD. They operated the St. Regis Hotel in Sioux Falls for a couple of years before moving to Winfred, SD where they owned a Caf and farmed. They lived at Winfred for several years before moving back onto the farm which Tom was born, in Larchwood, where they made their home for many years. When his wife, Mabels health declined she became a resident of the Rock Rapids Health Centre in July of 2004 until November of 2004. On November 1, 2004 she moved to Fellowship Village at Inwood, where she died on December 25, 2006, at the age of ninety-eight. On November 29, 2007 Tom became a resident at the Fellowship Village in Inwood, Iowa, where he died this past Thursday, January 3, 2008, at the age of 105. He is survived by one daughter, Jean Logterman of Darien, Wisconsin; eight grandchildren; 15 great grandchildren; 15 nieces and nephews, and a host of friends. He was preceded in death by his parents; and wife, Mabel Knipe.