Mert Alpers

Mert Alpers

Vinton

Mert Alpers, 89, of Vinton, Iowa, died at home surrounded by family on Friday, February 2, 2024.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, at Trinity Lutheran Church, Vinton, with Rev. Stephen Preus officiating. Interment will be held at Evergreen Cemetery, with lunch to follow. Visitation will be from 4:00 to 6:00 PM on Tuesday at Phillips Funeral Home, (212 East 6th Street).

Mert Alpers was born January 6, 1935, arriving as the sixth child of John and Elta (Paulsen) Alpers of Van Horne. In life and in death he was preceded by brothers Dale and Don, and sisters Helen (Kusel), Leona (Bunten), and Iona (Inman). Still living is Iona’s husband Dick.

Unions and births brought him the joy of being Uncle Mert to beloved nieces and nephews, all surviving except Duane Alpers and Becky Cottrell, a coworker at the Cedar Valley Times where Mert worked for 30 years.

He married Claudette Stover on June 24, 1956. Their early lives were devoted to daughters Lu (Kurt) Karr of Vinton, and Jo (Mike) Roths of Stevensville, MT, and in later years to their four grandchildren Austin (Kari) Karr of Denver, CO, Maggie (Jeff) Mangold of Vinton, Shawna (Mark) Fesler of Lolo, MT, and Tanna Hayward of Stevensville, MT.

Mert was the proud great-grandfather of Charlotte and Stella Karr, Hugh, Reid, and Theo Mangold, Liam, Brynlee, and Braxson Fesler, and Jacob and Jonas Hayward, who remember him as funny, loving, and kind.

Mert was most happy when his faith in God, nourished throughout his lifelong connection to the people and traditions of Trinity Lutheran Church, became a faith of service to others that was boundless in compassion, intensely caring, and infused with the warmth of friendship. His ministry was evident in the many years of volunteering at the Palace Theater, caring for those suffering the pain of loss while working at Phillips Funeral Home, and his professed favorite job of all, tending the needs of the ill and injured while working as a Valet at Virginia Gay Hospital.

Mert’s life was a ministry of love for everyone, offered with laughter in his voice and a twinkle of impending mischief in his eye.

Online condolences: www.phillipsfuneralhomes.com.