Emma was born and raised on her parents farm in Nodaway Twp., Page Co., Iowa. She was baptized on March 18, 1894 at Immanuel Lutheran Church. Her sponsors were Mrs D. Rurode, Mrs H. Wagoner, and Mrs E. Freudenburg. She attended public school and Immanuel Lutheran Parochial school for confirmation instructions.

She and her husband farmed in Nodaway Township. She was a typical Iowa farm wife who had a huge garden, canned vegetables and fruits. They had a Shetland pony named Flossie that she could hitch to a light plow to plow her garden. A mama skunk once chased her in the pasture when she was getting the cows for milking. Apparently she got between mama and her babies.

She was an excellent cook who enjoyed having family over for visits. She made excellent homemade ice cream. They had a cave for fruits and vegetables. In the summer she turned the ice cream freezer down there.

Emma was a great seamstress, making many of her own and her daughter's clothes, as well as making quilts and doing handwork.

The writer remembers going on a trip with Dan and Emma which took us to Yellowstone National Park. We stayed in a cabin. When she awoke the next morning,she had a nosebleed when she sat up, so we spent only one day in the park, but did get to see Yellowstone Falls, Old Faithful, and many of the other geysers. We left by the north entrance, out through Red Lodge, Montana, where the water had so much iron that the potatoes cooked in it looked rusty.

Cancer caused her death. [written Jul 9, 2006]

Mrs Dan Sunderman, 67, died Wednesday morning at the Clarinda Municipal Hospital where she had been hospitalized for six days, being in failing health since the first of August.

Emma Caroline Rurode was born in Nodaway Township, Page County, on February 8, 1894, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Carl Rurode. She spent her entire lifetime in the Clarinda area, a lifelong member of Immanuel Lutheran Church where she was baptized and confirmed.

After her marriage to Dan Sunderman the family farm home has been just north of the Immanuel Church.

She is survived by her husband. The daughter, Mrs Ruth Sump, and son, Wayne Sunderman, are of the Clarinda farm area. Her brothers, Theodore Rurode and Otto Rurode, are of Woonsocket, S. Dak. Two sisters are Mrs Ernest Herzberg of Villisca and Mrs Walter Baumgarten of Clarinda. She has six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, a sister, Mrs Mary Grunewaldt of Woonsocket, S Dake and a [obit cut off]