Mary L. Gruhl died August 13, 2017, at the age of 93. Mary was born in 1923 in Davenport and lived her entire life there. She married Richard F. Gruhl, also of Davenport, in 1944 at an army base in Salina, Kansas just before he shipped out to Europe during World War II. Mary and Dick had two children—John Gruhl, now in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Jane Gruhl, now in Denver. Dick died in 1997.
Her family was the most important thing to Mary. She loved holidays and birthdays and preparations for them. She was an excellent home baker—cookies, cakes, coffee cakes. A confirmed chocoholic, she felt she perfected the chocolate chip cookie recipe by deleting the nuts, doubling the chocolate, and under baking the cookies.
Mary was optimistic and enthusiastic. She was an avid sports fan, with season tickets to Davenport Central football and basketball games for 50 years and Iowa football games into her 80s. How she loved the Hawks! For every home game, she and Dick would load up the car with snacks and brats and the charcoal grill at the crack of dawn and head to Iowa City in a caravan of cars. Each season they joined friends on a bus trip to one away game against a lesser Big Ten foe. Mary was also a fervent bridge player, until diagnosed with macular degeneration at 62. Nevertheless, she maintained her upbeat attitude for three decades after that. She often said, “Don’t stop moving, or you’ll rust.”
She was active in the First Presbyterian Church, where she served as an Elder and where donations may be made. She was also active in the McKinley and Sudlow PTAs and a member of chapter GW of the PEO Sisterhood.
Mary was preceded in death by her brother, Jack Soller, and her sisters, Betty Sieb and Jean Youngberg. She was very close to her sisters, who also lived in Davenport. She talked to them every morning and every evening. In later years, she and Jean would hash over the Cubs’ performance after each game.
Survivors include daughter-in-law Sibyl Gruhl, son-in-law Jim Schwab, grandson Josh Gruhl (Salt Lake City), and granddaughter Emma Gruhl (Chicago).
Visitation will be Wednesday, August 16 at 10 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church, Davenport. The funeral service will follow at 11.
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