Gladys Beulah Mittman, 87, of Muscatine, Iowa, passed away on Sunday, February 19, 2023, at her home.
A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, February 24, 2023, at the Sweetland United Methodist Church. Reverend Mary Timmermann will officiate the service. Her grandchildren will be pallbearers. A private burial will take place in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 23, 2023, at Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home.
Memorials may be made to Sweetland United Methodist Church, Friends of the Pine Creek Grist Mill, or Friends of the Old Stone Church.
Gladys was born on May 26, 1935, at home in rural Muscatine County, Iowa, the daughter of Edgar and Beulah (French) Kemper. She had many fond memories of growing up on a farm, in a large family. She was the eighth child of nine.
Gladys attended a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade, in Montpelier Township, Muscatine County. She graduated from Muscatine High School in 1954 and from Iowa State Teacher’s College, now the University of Northern Iowa, in 1956. For two years, she taught sixth grade in Williamsburg, Iowa.
Gladys married Wayne Leroy Mittman on August 17, 1958 at Sweetland United Methodist Church, in Muscatine County. They had four children. She and Wayne were married for 52 years, living their entire married life in Muscatine; Wayne passed away in 2010.
Gladys was a lifelong member of Sweetland United Methodist Church, and a longtime member of Friends of the Pine Creek Grist Mill and Friends of the Old Stone Church. She enjoyed genealogy, local history, volunteering, and traveling. She helped for many years with area schools’ field trips, at the Pine Creek Grist Mill, and the Nye Cemetery; she taught many students and parents how to grave witch.
Gladys is survived by her four children, Robert (Barb) Mittman of Nevada, Iowa, Linda (Wes) Demmon of DeWitt, Iowa, John (Lori) Mittman of York, Nebraska, Barbara (John) Beals of Nevada, Iowa; 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.
She is also survived by her sister, Catherine ‘Kitty’ Root, of Muscatine, Iowa; her sister-in-law, Carol Kemper, of Elmwood, Illinois; and her sister-in-law, Sharon Klein, of Spirit Lake, Iowa.
Gladys was preceded in death by her parents, husband, three brothers: Edward, Paul, and Mark Kemper, and four sisters: Ruth Denison, Mary Hauck, Martha Hetzler, and Doris Kruse.
