Jetta Piper

Tuesday, January 3, 2017 6:49 pm

Jetta Piper, 87, of Decorah, died Monday, Jan. 2, 2017, at the Aase Haugen Nursing Home in Decorah. A Celebration of Life was Thursday, Jan. 5, from 3 to 6 p.m., at Schluter – Balik Funeral Home, in Decorah. Burial is at a later date in the Calvary Cemetery in Sioux City.

Jetta Joan (Harris) Piper was born July 6, 1929, the daughter of Walter and Loretta (Ruddy) Datisman in Beloit, Wis. She attended public school in Sioux City. She was married to Harold Raymond Stuart July 10, 1947, in Sioux City. She was a homemaker and raised her children. After Harold died, she was united in marriage to Roy Piper Oct. 23, 1976, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Sioux City. Together they moved to Decorah in 1979. She worked at Brandt’s and at the Stone Hearth Inn. Jetta always kept busy and enjoyed gardening, sewing, reading, hunting for morel mushrooms and “stringing cars.”  While in Sioux City, Jetta was active with the Girl Scout Troop No. 256; taking trips to Washington, D.C. and the Black Hills. She always loved her cats and fed many at the farm. Above everything else, she loved her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Jetta is survived by her husband, Roy Piper, Decorah; eight children: Bob (Mary) Piper, Bonner Springs, Kan; Denise (Rick) Bryce, Sargeant Bluff; Pat (Doug) Sand, Ridgeway; Kay (Steve) Peterson, Cresco; Linda (Chuck) Simeon, Moorehead, Minn.; Patty (Jeff) Everett, Clinton, Mo.; Tim Piper, Avon, Minn.; and Paula Piper, West Union; daughter-in-law, Darlene Piper, Randalia; 27 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.

Jetta was preceded in death by her parents, Walter and Loretta (Ruddy) Datisman; her first husband, Harold Raymond Stuart, in 1972; two sons, Walter Stuart in January 1989 and Roy Piper, Jr. in April 2016; three children in infancy: Mary in 1948, Loretta in 1951 and Raymond in 1954; two sisters, Mona (Max) Schlader and Maureen “Toni” McGee.