Isabelle Augusta Krauss

Isabella Augusta DeRuntz was the 4^th child born to Otto Adolph DeRuntz and Mary Kirn DeRuntz in Chicago, Illinois February 20, 1920. She grew up in the burgeoning city of Chicago and resided in the southwest suburban village of Oak Lawn. Isabelle passed away August 6, 2014 after a lengthy illness and will join her husband Victor in repose at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. After attending elementary school at St. Gerald Catholic School she graduated high school from Calumet Technical School in 1938. Isabelle, well liked in high school and known as Izzy, was a class officer. She worked in the local Oak Lawn Kroger grocery store and later as a secretary in Ford City during WWII. After the war Isabelle married Victor Krauss to whom she remained married for 49 years until Vic’s death in 1997. During their years together the couple had 5 children and multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They cherished their family and were both active in the Village of Oak Lawn with Isabelle being a member of the Fire Department Women’s Auxiliary. The couple raised their family while she worked evenings as a nurses’ aide in the emergency room of Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois. Izzy focused on being a housewife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother until the couple’s retirement and relocation to Lacey, Washington in 1982. She fully enjoyed her retirement and those years spent with Vic until his passing. Isabelle became active with the St. Martin Abbey women’s group and worked in the Attic shop as a volunteer. She made many new friends there and wherever she went. She loved her family and had many memories of travel including frequent visits to Hawaii to visit daughter Lynn and her family, to Illinois for visits with daughter Vicki and her family, to California for visits with son Jim and family, to Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Idaho to visit son Jay and family. She often travelled with Vic and later with son Ron and Nadine to her cabin in Eureka, Montana. Numerous offspring, friends, and loved ones always mutually enjoyed her company on those many trips. She loved her independence, travel, Sunday dinners, soccer matches, gardening and yard work. She remained active until her health gradually limited her daily walks around the neighborhood where everyone knew her as Isabelle, the friendly little lady who would greet them and pause for conversation and sharing a little of life and time. She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church as well as the local Classy Lassies women sorority.

 Isabelle was preceded in death by her loving husband, Victor, her parents Otto and Mary, her siblings, Marie Homerding, Leo DeRuntz, Christine Soderling, Arthur DeRuntz, and Geraldine McCabe, by her grandson Brian Kossman and her great grand-daughter Amanda. She is survived by her sister Anne Buhl in Indianapolis and brother Bob DeRuntz in Rancho Santa Fe, California, as well as her children Lynn (Len) Scaduto in Honolulu, Hawaii, Vicki (Terry) Dunne in New Lenox, Illinois, Ron (Nadine) Krauss in Olympia, Washington, Jim and his son, Derek in Lacey, Washington, and John (Suzanne) Krauss in Washington. With the loving care of her son Jim, Isabelle was able to live her final years in her home and make several more rips around the block. She leaves behind many great friends and neighbors, cousins, nieces, nephews, 22 grand and numerous great grandchildren spread across the land.