SIEGFRIEDPaul Siegfried, 85, of the Eastern Star Masonic Home in Boone and formerly of Niota, Illinois, died at the Home on August 29, 2017. Paul Leonard Siegfried was born on January 18, 1932 on the family farm, in Appanoose Township in Illinois, the son of George and Mary (Bolte) Siegfried. Paul was Class President of his graduating class of 1950, from Saints Peter and Paul High School, where he was an avid basketball player. He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1952 and served during the Korean War. On September 5, 1959, Paul married Bonnadonna ‘Bonnie’ Rueth at the Sacred Heart Church in Fort Madison, Iowa. Paul farmed in Hancock County in Illinois. The couple moved to Boone in the fall of 2014. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus in Nauvoo, and Paul loved farming, of course with his “Case” tractors, and horses.
He is preceded in death by his parents, and a brother Clement Siegfried. Paul is survived by his wife, Bonnie of Boone; a son Brent Siegfried and wife Yolantha of Aurora, Illinois; a daughter, Alison Purtle and husband Eric of Boone; a brother George Siegfried Jr. of Springfield, Illinois; a sister Catherine Campo of Riverton, Illinois; four grandchildren, Alexander Siegfried, Andrew Siegfried, Alizarin Purtle, and Evanston Purtle.
A Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday, September 14, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Boone, IA with Rev. James Bruch officiating.
On Friday, September 15, 2017 the family will receive friends from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. just prior to the Mass of Burial which will be held at 11:00 a.m. all at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Nauvoo, IL with Rev. Thomas Szydlik officiating. Burial will be held at Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Nauvoo, IL with full Military Honors. In memory of Paul, memorials may be directed to the Church of the Sacred Heart in Boone, IA or Ss. Peter and Paul School in Nauvoo, IL. Online condolences to Paul’s family may be left at the King-Lynk Funeral Home & Crematory website: www.kinglynk.com. King-Lynk Funeral Home & Crematory in Fort Madison is assisting the family with the arrangements.
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker"
-- so God made a Farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board"
-- so God made a Farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild; somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife’s done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it"
-- so God made a Farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt, and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps; who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, and then pain’n from tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours"
-- so God made a Farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds, and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place
-- so God made a Farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark."
It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church; somebody who would bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son and daughter says that they want to spend their lives "doing what dad does."
-- so God made a Farmer.
