November 11, 1918 - September 18, 2003
Services Zion Lutheran Church Denison, Iowa
10:30 A.M. - Monday, September 22, 2003
Officiants Rev. Kurt Kaiser Rev. David Sewing
Service Music Kurt Heiden - Soloist Adam Francis - Trumpeter.
Karen Kahl - Organist
Solo Selection Children of the Heavenly Father
Congregational Hymns What a Friend We Have in Jesus 457
Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me 376
I Am Jesus' Little Lamb 648
I Know that My Redeemer Lives vs: 1,2,7,8 200
Pallbearers Chad Nissen, Erica Heiden, Nathan Francis, Emily Heiden, Adam Francis, Ellen Heiden
Interment Crawford Heights Memory Gardens
Garden of Gethsemane Denison, Iowa

The family invites everyone to return to the church and join them in fellowship and lunch served by the Ladies Aid
Walter A. Huebner and Family Funeral Service

Arlene Pauline Margaret Nissen
Arlene, daughter of Hans and Pauline Asmus Jurgensen, was born November 11, 1918, near Audubon, Iowa.

She was baptized in the Lutheran faith and confirmed March 1934, at Zion Lutheran Church, Manning, Iowa. She attended rural schools in the Manning area.

Arlene was united in marriage with Merlin Nissen, August 26, 1943, and God richly blessed this union with three children, Curtis, Candis and Cara.

Arlene traveled with Merlin during his tour of duty in WW II and worked at the Veteran's Memorial Administration Offices. Following WWII they made their home in Denison, Iowa. Arlene was Merlin's bookkeeper and partner in their construction business, often working side by side. She was a member of Zion Lutheran Ladies Aid, and officer of the Lutheran School PTA, and a member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary.

As a testament to Arlene's steadfast faith in the Lord Jesus, she was a loving, compassionate and devoted wife, mother, daughter, sister, grandmother and friend. She especially loved babies and children, having raised her own three children and later working as a full-time nanny to her three granddaughters for 15 years. Following Merlin's death in 1976, Arlene babysat over 100 children in the Denison area before moving to Des Moines in 1984 where she has lived until the time of her death at the age of 84 years.

Besides her husband, Arlene was preceded in death by her parents and brother, Merlin Jurgensen. Arlene is survived by her three children, Curtis Nissen and his wife, Naomi, of Gulfport, Mississippi; Candis and her husband, Jere Francis, of Columbia, Missouri; and Cara and her husband, Kurt Heiden, of Des Moines; six grandchildren, Chad Nissen, Nathan and Adam Francis, Erica, Emily and Ellen Heiden; one sister-in-law, Irene Jurgensen, of Denison.