Gertrud "Trudy" Gies

Gertrud “Trudy” Gies (Ruppel) went to be with the Lord on April 11, 2023. She was born on November 29, 1940, in Schmiegel, Poland, to Reinhold and Karoline Jubin Ruppel. Her family left Poland in January of 1945 and then spent the remainder of 1945 in Berlin. She ended up in a refugee camp with her mother and siblings after her father was missing in action during the war. They later settled in Algesdorf, near Hannover in March of 1946. After immigrating with her family to the United States in 1956, Trudy lived in Sydney, Montana and finished high school before moving to Chicago in 1961. She became a proud US Citizen and Trudy worked in offices around Chicago before going to Beauty School. She worked for 20 years as a beautician. She met her husband, Joseph, in 1965 and had a son, Andre. She enjoyed their family lake home in Antioch, IL and loved entertaining family while boating in the summer and snowmobiling in the winter. In 1986, she and Joe moved to Lakeview, Arkansas to retire and her joy for entertaining family continued on Bull Shoals Lake during the summers. Trudy was an excellent cook and her family's favorites were her Chicken ala King, Rouladen, and Schnitzel with Spaetzle.
In 1991, she and Joe came out of retirement to buy Lakeview Liquor and operated it for 14 years. After they sold the store, she stayed busy caring for her brother, Robert, and sister in law, Julie as well as her sister, Addy, until she went to live with family in Montana. In 2013, Joe was diagnosed with Lymphoma and she again became a caregiver. After his remission in 2017, she and Joe moved to Fayetteville, AR to be closer to Andre and his family.
She attended Christ by the Lake Lutheran Church for 30 years while living in Lakeview where she served with the prayer shawl ministry. When they moved to Fayetteville, she and Joe found a new church family with Emmanuel Lutheran Church where Trudy was very active with the quilting ladies making quilts for those in need. She was very blessed by both congregations.
Her favorite past times were cooking, baking, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and playing in the dirt with her flowers. She was famous for her crocheted “scrubbies” and loved sharing them with her friends and caregivers.
Trudy is survived by her son, Andre (Marci) Gies; two granddaughters, Gabrielle, and Sophie; sister, Margarete Gergen; Joe’s three daughters, whom she loved as her own, Cindy O’Conner, Cathy Biasco, and Candy Duesenberg as well as their children, Christopher, Sarah, Matthew, Sean, Kimberly, Michael, David, Joe and Peter and many great grandchildren and nieces and nephews.
Trudy is preceded in death by her husband of 52 years, Joseph Ernst Gies; brothers, Otto Ruppel, Robert Ruppel, Henry Ruppel, and William Ruppel and her sisters, Adele Albrecht and Emma Domolky.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Circle of Life Hospice in Springdale or Christ by the Lake Church.
A memorial service will be held on Monday, April 17th at 4:00 pm at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Fayetteville followed by a service on Saturday, May 6th at Christ by the Lake Lutheran Church in Bull Shoals.