Funeral services for Helene Ploog were held Friday, March 1, 1991, at 2:00 p.m. at Ohde Funeral Home in Manning, Iowa. Pastor Robert Riggert of Zion Lutheran Church in Manning officiated with Paula Weiss as organist. Interment was in Manning City Cemetery with Jerry Irlbeck, Stanley Ewoldt, Franklin Mohr, Leroy Irlbeck, Walt Lage and Art Fielweber as casketbearers.

Helene, daughter of Claus and Catherine (Michaelsen) Bunz, was born April 24, 1902, in Holstein, Germany. She attended elementary school in her homeland.

In March of 1925 Helene came to the United States and on October 14th of that year was united in marriage with August Ploog by Reverend Johann M. Ansorge. Three children: Herman, Marie, and Kathleen, were born to this union. Herman died as a young child.

Helene and August farmed in the Manning area, moving to Manning in 1954. In 1975 they celebrated their golden wedding. August died in 1978. Helene continued to make her home in Manning and later lived with her daughter, Kathleen. For the past year and a half she had been a resident of the Regency Care Center in Norwalk, Iowa where she died on Tuesday, February 26, 1991, at the age of 88 years, 10 months and 2 days.

Besides her husband and her son she was preceded in death by her parents and by six brothers: Willey, Theis, Andreas, Johannes, Heinrich, and Claudius Bunz.

Survivors include her daughters: Marie Pettengill, of Dyersville, and Kathleen Spencer, of Des Moines; three grandchildren: Rebecca Davis, of Dyersville; Holly Reikofski, of Bowling Green, Florida; and Steve Davis, of Ft. Worth, Texas; two great-grandsons, Joseph and Jonathan Reikofski; other relatives and friends.