Elfrieda Martha Landes Ramseyer, a devoted wife, loving mother, cherished grandmother, caring nurse and exceptional educator, died peacefully on January 24, 2025 surrounded by her family. She was 90.

Elfrieda lived a rich life of service. Warm and kind, she was a great friend, always willing to listen and offer words of encouragement. She loved making meals for persons and families in need, and her children recall the smell of freshly made soup and bread many afternoons and evenings as she prepared to drop off a meal. She cherished going to coffee with friends and was well known as a sympathetic listener. She enjoyed participating in church choirs throughout her life, and was a bass in the Sweet Adelines women's barbershop chorus in Iowa for many years.

The daughter of a minister – she referred to herself throughout her life as a "preacher's kid" – Elfrieda learned from an early age the importance of helping others, serving as a community volunteer wherever she lived. She also moved with her family often during her childhood. 

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She was working on a book about these experiences until the onset of a series of health challenges, including being diagnosed in 2013 with peripheral neuropathy, which limited her mobility but not her spirit. More recently, her long-term memory was an issue, but she enjoyed hearing stories from her family about their time together.

Elfrieda was a registered nurse for more than 40 years, known for her sensitivity, kindness and professionalism. She attended graduate school in her mid-30s, earning a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling, and began a lengthy career as a nurse educator at Lima Technical College (now Rhodes State University); Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colorado; and Indian Hills Community College and Buena Vista University, both in Ottumwa, Iowa.

"Students were always important to me," Elfrieda said during a recent conversation. "I loved teaching."

Later in her career, she founded EMR Associates, traveling across Iowa to offer continuing education programs for nurses. 

Humble and never comfortable in the spotlight, Elfrieda nonetheless was acknowledged for her accomplishments, receiving the Mennonite Nurses' Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award in 1997; and the Bluffton College National Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award in 1999.

Elfrieda was born on September 21, 1934, in Philadelphia, the daughter of Reverend Carl J. Landes and Martha Graber Landes. She attended high school in Ohio and Oklahoma and was a graduate of Bluffton University in Ohio; the Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, where she earned a bachelor's degree in nursing; and Bowling Green State University. She was a longtime member of the First Mennonite Church in Bluffton, Ohio, with religion a key aspect of her life.

She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Dick of Bluffton; her daughter, Marty (John) Barnett, of Boyd, Texas; her son, Rick (Beth), of Cumberland, Maine; and many nieces and nephews. She was exceptionally proud of her two grandchildren: Julia, who recently got married and is a PhD candidate in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Kate, a senior at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Elfrieda spent many years compiling scrapbooks of all their accomplishments and had the opportunity to read sections to them around the dining room table last summer at Elfrieda and Dick's home in Bluffton.

A memorial service will be held in the months ahead. Per Elfrieda's wishes, her body will be donated to the University of Toledo College of Medicine. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made on Elfrieda's behalf to scholarships benefiting students at the Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University Foundation, Campus Box 8000, Normal, Illinois 61790-8000.

Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.chiles-lamanfh.com/