Alaine Meier

Alaine M. Meier, 78, of Waukon died Saturday, February 22, 2020 at Good Samaritan Center in Waukon. Funeral services were held Tuesday, February 25 at First Baptist Church in Waukon with Pastor Duane Smith officiating. Burial was at Oakland Cemetery, Waukon. Memorials may be made to the Good Samaritan Society or to Oakland Cemetery, both in Waukon.

Alaine Marie Herman Meier was born June 20, 1941 at the Waukon Hospital in Waukon, the daughter of Harold and Evelyn (Schon) Herman. She was named after someone in Chicago and her parents liked that name; there also was a WWII song called “Marie Alena”. The joke was she started the war in 1941 and her sister, Ruth, ended the war in 1945.

She grew up in a home that had all the amenities anyone could ever wish for at that time. Her parents owned Herman Appliance for over 40 years and they had the first automatic dishwasher and automatic washing machine in Waukon. The joke was as follows: they were so poor that they could only afford to run the dishwasher once a week!

In 1955, at the age of 14, she started playing the organ at First Baptist Church when there was a funeral and they didn’t have anyone who could play for it; Alaine continued on from that day forward to be the church organist and pianist. She loved all kinds of music and played by ear; she drove her piano teacher nuts because she never played what was written on the music!

Alaine played for many functions and at both of the nursing homes her entire life. She and Helen Johnson had very special duets in which Helen played on the vibraharp. Alaine loved to play the piano and got her lifelong wish to own her own baby grand piano.

She graduated 12th in her class from the Waukon High School Class of 1959. Alaine had many dear friends and her classmates have always stayed a very close knit group throughout the years and are still getting together Wednesdays for breakfast. They even would meet at the Good Samaritan Home to include her, especially when she could no longer get out to meet with them.

She attended Iowa State University for two years. Alaine studied home economics and wanted to be a teacher. Her plans changed as she fell in love and married James Howard Meier September 9, 1961 at First Baptist Church in Waukon and became a farmwife. Together they farmed in Ludlow Township. For fun, she raised rare breed chickens, some that laid green eggs, and purebred collies.

She worked full time for her parents at Herman Appliance store from 1974-1990, when Evelyn sold the store to Jim Wadsworth. She took the census in 1990 and then worked at Dee Implement until Jim called her back to Jim’s Appliance from 1995-2001. In December of 1993, they bought the Town & Country Mobile Home Park, where they leased the old laundry mat to the Allamakee County Food Shelf.

She liked to stay very active in the church and community through the years. Alaine was a member of First Baptist Church, where she was very active with Mission Circle and coordinated many retreats at the Village Creek Bible Camp. She loved going to Women of Faith events and Stonecroft Bible Studies, where she led a week-long music ministry in Branson, MO.

Alaine and Jim loved going to Branson and doing conferences at Stonecroft and many theater shows; Lorie Line’s Christmas concerts were always a joy for her. She served on the Allamakee County Extension Council from 1996-2006, Oakland Cemetery Board from 1995-2009, Christian Women’s Club from 2001-2008, Coordinator for the Allamakee Food Shelf from 2001-2012, Life VMH Women’s Auxiliary, Life Allamakee County Historical Society, was Volunteer of the Year in 2007 for Good Samaritan Home, a storekeeper for the AWANA program since 1987, and was a member of the Northeast Iowa Quilters Guild from 1986-2006.

Her motto was seize the moment and do the things you couldn’t when you were younger. Alaine wanted to be remembered as a kind and fun loving spirit. Her favorite verse was James 1:5-6, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” NKJ

Survivors include her children: Paul Meier and Sharilyn (Gregg) Decker, both of Waukon; five grandchildren: Brandon Decker, Cody Hagen, Rebecca (Nick) Cappussi, and Dillion and Desirae Meier; two great-grandchildren, Cecilia and Rocco Cappussi; a sister, Ruth (Larry) Orth of Waterloo; a sister-in-law, Judy Shogren of Lansing; and nieces and nephews, Diane and Derrick Shogren, Lisa Griffey, and Sue (Bill) Boyd and their children, Mikalya and Connor.

She is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, James, who died in 2011; and a brother-in-law, LaVern Shogren.

Honorary casketbearers were the Class of 1959 and the Golden Girls: Ellen Dickman, Elaine Fox and Helen Johnson. Casketbearers were Dillon Meier, David and Nathan Schon, Derrick Shogren, Paul Promnitz and Larry Gelo. Online condolences may be left at www.martinfunerals.com.