Rosemary Lovett

Rosemary Anne Balk was born in St. Lucas, Iowa, on February 24, 1924, the second of seven children of Philip Ulrich Balk and Agnes Catherine Greteman. Her sister Suzanne was three years older, and her sister Phyllis was five years younger. When Rosemary was 11, triplet sisters Victoria, Elizabeth and Nancy Jean were born, but did not survive the day. Her younger brother Thomas Phillip was born when she 14.

She grew up in the small town of Waucoma in northeastern Iowa. School and church were just north of her home, past a high hedge. Her father’s Ford dealership and auto repair shop were two blocks away. As a teenager, she helped in the large family garden and pumped gas at the filling station. During the Depression, bartering was common and her father was sometimes compensated for auto repair work in eggs, potatoes, or mason jars of sorghum.

Rosemary excelled in school, graduating as salutatorian of her high school class (out of 10 students, she would point out), was an accomplished clarinet player, and a conference all-star basketball player. She graduated from the College of St. Catherine in Saint Paul, Minnesota where she majored in food science, and sang popular songs to entertain classmates in a trio called The ABC’s. After graduation, she worked as a food scientist at Pillsbury where she helped develop the first cake mixes and pie crusts.

In 1947, she married Thomas George Lovett. In 1953, they moved their growing family to a new house built on former potato fields in Richfield. During those years Rosemary was a busy homemaker following the many sports and music activities of her six children, sewing, and baking State Fair prize-winning cookies and cakes. Those stopping by to visit never left without a cookie or two and conversation. For years she met regularly with friends in her church “calendar club” and helped serve many funeral lunches.

After their children were grown Rosemary and Tom hosted their neighborhood’s annual get together. In later years she continued to be intellectually curious, was an avid reader, participated in several book clubs, and kept up a large correspondence with distant family and friends. She won her age group in a women’s 5K when she was well into her 70's, and with her husband delivered Meals on Wheels into her late 80’s. She regularly had lunch with old college and church friends, and enjoyed summer gardening and winter jigsaw puzzles among her other interests. In September of 2013, she and Tom celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary and 60 years in the same house.

For the four years before her husband’s death in 2014, she served as his full-time caregiver. In the years after his death she carried on Tom’s tradition of gardening and made decisions about the family farm until it was sold this past winter. She continued to live independently in her home, finding joy in her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends and neighbors. In addition to her six children she was blessed with 16 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

She is survived by her six children: Michael (Sylvia), Thomas (Annemarie), Rick (Carol), Joe (Kim), Shawn (Lynn), and Mary Susan; grandchildren Kara (Russ Epperson), Patrick (Amy), Erin (Matt Blair), Matthew, Colin (Chelsea), Ian, Shannon (Brad Breidenbach), Thomas (Samantha), Emily (Brian Woodruff), Alec, David, Timothy, Logan, Abigail, Delaney (Gerard Gagnon) and Sean; twelve great grandchildren; her brother, Tom (Sue) Balk and sister-in-law Kathleen Mackenzie; Candace Lovett, and many other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her husband Thomas George Lovett, and her sisters Suzanne Kretzschmar and Phyllis Finnelly.