Anneliese Heider Tisdale
Anneliese Heider Tisdale
Cedar Rapids
Anneliese Heider Tisdale, a spellbinding storyteller, a celebrated teacher and the beloved mother of three and grandmother of 17, died Sept. 10, 2024, in Cedar Rapids. She was 96.
A celebration of Anneliese’s life will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 4, at the Cedar Memorial Chapel of Memories, located at 4200 First Ave. NE, with a visitation an hour before the service and a light luncheon to follow.
Anneliese’s body has been deeded to the University of Iowa College of Medicine for medical education and research, with burial at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial gift to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (ncsml.org) in Cedar Rapids.
Anneliese grew up in Munich, Germany, during World War II, a story she told with humanity, drama and clarity in her 2012 memoir, “Resilience: Coming of Age in World War II Germany.” After the war, she worked as an interpreter for the Allies and married an American sergeant, Clyde Gardner, moving to his family’s farm near Dana in west-central Iowa in 1947.
She was overwhelmed by the plenty she found in U.S. stores after the privation of the war years, as she relates in her second memoir, “Becoming American,” which was published this month (Amazon.com).
Anneliese became a U.S. citizen Nov. 20, 1950. A key turning point in her life came in 1957 when she had to decide, after a divorce, whether she would stay in the U.S., where her children had been born, or return to Germany to live with her parents and raise her children there.
She stayed, struggling through classes at Boone Junior College, where she was overwhelmed with the rapid-fire English. She’d sing the fight song from “Carmen” in her car as she drove to classes every morning to give herself courage, then drive home in tears. One evening, her daughter Linda told her, “You can’t give up, Mommy. You always tell us the worst thing we can do is give up.”
She persevered and, with the help of friends, flash cards and a scholarship, she graduated in May 1962. It was on to the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where she and her children were introduced to football and became lifelong Hawkeye fans. She graduated in May 1964 and spent almost 30 years teaching German and French in the Cedar Rapids school district, first at Franklin Middle School and then at Washington High School. She earned her master’s degree at the University of Iowa in 1973. After she retired, she taught German at Kirkwood Community College from 2004 to 2008.
Anneliese was a member of the Cedar Rapids Literary Club and The Guild Writers, a special interest group at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids. She also taught a German language club, with members meeting at her home in northeast Cedar Rapids for gourmet German meals.
Anneliese Heider was born Feb. 4, 1928, to Elisabeth and Matthias Heider in Munich. She married Clyde Gardner in 1947, and they had three children. She married Jim Tisdale on Dec. 22, 1991 – he was her daughter Linda’s widowed father-in-law. They traveled widely and enjoyed a gourmet cooking club and many Hawkeye football games before Jim’s death Feb. 21, 2019.
Anneliese is survived by her children, Larry (Myong) Gardner of Junction City, Kan., Linda (Gary) Tisdale of Columbus, Ohio, and Lorena Potter of Cedar Rapids; her “bonus” children, Terri (Patrick) Ferguson of San Diego, Calif., Kirt (Gail) Tisdale of Everett, Wash., and Kent (Peg) Tisdale of Williamston, Mich.; 17 grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandson.
She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband; her brother, Ludwig Heider; and a special cousin, Mariele Romano.
Online condolences may be directed to the family at www.cedarmemorial.com under Obituaries.