Rose Marie Serra, 86, late of Fayette, Iowa, passed away on March 15, 2022, at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Rose Marie was born on April 16, 1935 in Winterset, Iowa, daughter of Talley E. and Margaret Agnes (Burke) John, the eighth of twelve children. She graduated with honors from Winterset High School in 1953, from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing (Burlington) in 1956, and later received a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Iowa. In 1963 she began her thirty-three-year affiliation with the Public Health Nursing Association (later Visiting Nurse Services) in Des Moines, where she ultimately served as Vice President for Clinical Services until her retirement in 1996. She was active in both the Iowa- and American Nurses’ Association, where she held a variety of leadership positions including Vice President of INA, and President of the Seventh District (where she was once named Nurse of the Year). Throughout her life, until suffering a stroke in 2018, she served on multiple community boards and advisory committees.
Rose Marie married Lew Dwight Wallace in 1957, was widowed and left with a five-week-old daughter in 1958. She married Raymond Anthony Serra of Des Moines in 1966 (d. 2003).
She is survived by her daughter Chris Ashburn (Bill) of Lutz, Florida, and son Nick (Tereasa Lenius) of Fayette, Iowa, as well as three grandchildren, one great-grandson, and a brother and sister.
Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:30 a.m., Friday, March 25, 2022 at St. Anthony Catholic Church with interment at Glendale Cemetery. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m., Thursday, at Brooks Funeral Care, 2135 SW 9th Street.
Donations to St. Anthony’s Foundation in lieu of flowers.
