Jennette Martin

Jennette Grundmeier Martin was born on June 18, 1925 to Clara Rose (Bloyer) Grundmeier and Herman F. Grundmeier at home on their farm in Sac County, Iowa. She died three days after her 100th birthday on June 21, 2025 at Walnut Ridge Care Center in Clive, Iowa.

Jennette had a happy childhood growing up on their family farm with her sister and two brothers despite living through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. She was listening to an opera on the radio when the announcer broke in to say that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Jennette was an avid six-on-six basketball player in high school and was president of her senior class. In 1942, she graduated from Hayes Consolidated High School at the age of 16. She wanted to be a nurse, but practically speaking, her future prospects were to be a hired girl for the neighbors and to eventually get married. She said that the trajectory of her life completely changed when a wealthy man in her church offered her a scholarship to attend Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Jennette did attend Buena Vista College for one year where she also learned to love football when the college coach started a flag football league for women students since all the men were away at war. She always considered herself an alumna. When she was 18, Jennette enrolled in the Methodist Hospital School for Nurses in Sioux City, Iowa as an army nurse cadet, through a program offering scholarships to encourage women to enter nursing. Jennette graduated from nursing school in 1946. She took her nursing board exams at the State Capitol Building in Des Moines, Iowa and became a registered nurse.

Jennette began her nursing career at the Storm Lake Community Hospital. In 1949, she and a fellow nurse decided to attend the International Convention of Nurses being held in Stockholm, Sweden that summer. With a camera loaned by a friend and a new diary gifted by her sister, Jennette left Iowa for the first time. She traveled by train from Storm Lake to Chicago and then to New York City. There she boarded the U.S.S. Washington, recently used as a troop carrier, for a five-day voyage to England. In addition to attending the convention, Jennette and her friend toured London and Scotland, Norway, Denmark, France, Switzerland, and Italy. In Rome they had an audience with the Pope. In Florence they saw the Last Supper, which had been sandbagged during the war and had miraculously escaped damage. They stopped in Monte Carlo for some gambling and purchased bikinis for sunbathing along the Mediterranean. They also saw the tremendous damage remaining from the war with many bombed out buildings not yet repaired or even cleaned up.

In 1950, at the insistence of a friend, Jennette attended a dance at the Cobblestone Ballroom in Storm Lake, where she met an electrical engineer and navy veteran named Bill Martin, who was from Sutherland, Iowa. He asked for her telephone number. They were married a few months later on December 30, 1950 and honeymooned in New Orleans. Their only child, Ann Lea Martin, was born on January 11, 1952.

Bill, Jennette, and Ann settled in Newton, Iowa in 1957 where Bill worked for The Maytag Company for over 30 years. Jennette was very involved in the community as a Blue Bird leader, 4-H leader, Sunday School teacher, church elder, hospital volunteer, and P.E.O. sister. She also began her avocation as an artist with a correspondence course in drawing and painting. Jennette and Bill traveled to the Caribbean, Mexico, Scotland, and to Elderhostels around the United States.

Jennette participated in art classes with several professional artists over the years. She painted mainly in oil and pastels. She traveled with her art classes to Mexico, Italy, France, and Ireland. She also purchased a loom and taught herself how to weave, as well as knit and crochet.

Jennette and Bill moved to Bella Vista, Arkansas in 1987 when Bill retired from Maytag. Jennette was very active in the newly formed Presbyterian Church of Bella Vista and was described by a friend as a pillar of the church. She continued to take art classes and displayed and sold her paintings and weavings at the Wishing Springs Art Gallery in Bella Vista. Bill and Jennette celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2000. When Bill died in 2001, Jennette decided to remain in Bella Vista where she had many church and artist friends. She visited frequently in Iowa to see her daughter and her two grandsons and later, her great-grandchildren.

Jennette returned to Iowa in 2018 to be closer to her daughter. She resided in the Walnut Ridge Retirement Community in Clive, Iowa first in an apartment and then in the long-term care facility for the past year. Even in her last year she made new friends and enjoyed dining every day with them at “The Happy Table”.

Jennette was a very independent and talented woman. Her deep Christian faith guided her all her life. Jennette is survived by her daughter, Ann Martin Ver Heul (Jeff) of Adel, Iowa; her grandson, Aaron Martin Ver Heul (Amanda) and their children Vivian, Isaac, Ezra, Vera, and Gabriel, of Lexington, Massachusetts; her grandson, Nathan Jeffrey Ver Heul (Chen Sun) of Sunnyvale, California; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Wilbur James (Bill) Martin; her parents; her sister, Jean (Grundmeier) Snyder; and her brothers, Kenneth and Richard Grundmeier.

The family will gather at a later time for a service in Bella Vista, Arkansas. Condolences may be expressed at www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com.

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