Anna Rose Blayer

TAMA-Anna Rose Blayer, 100, of Tama, passed away, Saturday, January 13, 2024, at Cedar Ridge Village in West Des Moines. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Saturday, January 20, 2024, at 11:00 AM at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Tama with Father Michael McAndrew and Deacon Stan Upah officiating. Interment will follow at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Tama. Visitation will be held Saturday, January 20, 2024, from 10:00 AM until the time of service at the church.

Anna Rose Blayer was born March 28, 1923 in Tama, Iowa, to Charles A. and Josephine Carr Kupka.

She attended St. Mary’s Catholic School through eighth grade. She graduated from Tama High School in 1940. She attended Mason City Junior College for one year because she was not eighteen yet and could not go to nursing school until after she was eighteen. She graduated from St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, School of Nursing in Detroit, MI in 1944. She worked at New Hampton, Iowa, hospital for one year as an RN. She returned to Detroit Working at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital as a surgical nurse and night supervisor while continuing her education at Mercy College (University of Detroit Mercy) graduating in 1947 with her Bachelors of Science in nursing.

While in Detroit she met Walter Blayer shortly before WWII and they were united in marriage at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Tama, Iowa on August 26th, 1947. After which they returned to Detroit to work and live. In 1952 they returned to Tama, Iowa to live.

After staying home to raise their first five children, Anna Rose went back to work as a nurse. In 1966 she started as a part-time staff nurse at the newly formed Tama County Health Service as a public health nurse. She moved to a full-time position with Tama County Health in 1978. During those years she made home visits, provided community education, and ran well-child and elderly clinics with her main territory being the Meskwaki Settlement.

She started volunteering in the early 1970’s with the Tama and Toledo ambulance services when both of them were just getting started. She would volunteer in Tama on the weekend and Toledo one day a week when she was working at Tama County Health Service. Over the years her volunteering with the ambulance services increased in time. There were family dinners interrupted so someone else may live to have more time with their own family. When her family was grown and if they were not gathering on a holiday she would take call for another volunteer so they could spend time with their family even if it meant sitting at the fire station in Toledo to be closer if the pager went off since she lived in Tama. She did this for over 30 years, not retiring until she was almost 80.

She also volunteered in many other ways before and after her 1987 retirement from Tama County Health Service. She was very active in her church, St Patrick’s including the RCIA program, as a Eucharistic minister that included taking communion to Sunny Hill and with the CCW. She was also a member of the Catholic Order of Foresters and Tama American Legion Auxiliary. She delivered Meals on Wheels, helped at the Clothes Closet and served on the Tama County Board of Health and the Advisory Board for Tama County Health Services. Her volunteering went into at least her late 80’s.

She lived a long life and got to enjoy traveling to places like Scotland, England and Wales in her 70’s, and Hawaii and the Grand Canyon in her 80’s. Her longevity had to be contributed to her always active lifestyle between exercise and staying active in her community.

She is survived by five children: James (Ruth), Iowa City, Mary (Bill) Cantin, Enfield CT, Richard, Coulter, Robert (Holly), Marshalltown, and Patricia, Waukee along with several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings, husband, Walter on June 29, 1990, her daughter Karen, and her son Stephen in infancy.

Memorials may be directed to the Tama or Toledo Ambulance Service, St. Patrick Catholic Church in Tama or favorite charity of your choice.

Kruse-Phillips Funeral Home, Tama-Toledo, is assisting the family with arrangements.