Gertrude M Rubin died at the Amery Regional Medical Center on Thursday September 30, 2010 at the age of 95 years. Funeral services will be held on Monday, October 4, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. from Redeemer Lutheran Church in Amery. Visitation will be at the funeral home on Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. and at the church for the hour prior to the service.

GERTRUDE META BLOCK was born October 23, 1914 in Schlawe, Germany. Times were very tough in Germany following WWI, so her parents and her uncle immigrated to the United States, bringing Gertrude and her older sister Ann to the United States via the USS George Washington, arriving at Ellis Island on March 3, 1923.

Her family settled near Clayton, Wisconsin, where Gertrude graduated from grade school on May 29, 1929 as class valedictorian. After graduation she worked at the Clayton Hotel where she met her future husband, the dashing cheese maker Fred Rubin. She always said it was love at first sight. They were married on November 28, 1933 at the Silver Creek Church parsonage, Clayton, Wisconsin. Fred and Gertrude and Fred's brother and sister-in-law, Ed and Olga, went into the cheese making business at the Clayton Cheese Factory in Clayton and at Good Hope cheese factory in Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

In 1937, Fred bought Valley View Cheese Factory between Clayton and Clear Lake. Gert worked in the cheese factory with Fred, cooked for the hired men, kept house, and raised their growing family. During this time she took evening courses and became a United States Citizen on April 17, 1939. When the factory closed in 1954, they moved to Rice Lake, Wisconsin, for a short time and then to Almora, Minnesota, where Fred made cheese until 1959. They returned to Wisconsin where Fred was the head cheese maker and Gert ran the retail cheese store at the Bass Lake Cheese factory near Somerset.

In 1963 Fred accepted a job as cheese maker in the fledgling cheese industry in Beach, North Dakota. Fred, Gert and the two youngest boys moved to the far western edge of the state where Gertrude assisted Fred at the cheese factory until they retired in 1976.

Fred and Gert retired and returned to their beloved Wisconsin, buying a home in Amery where they lived very happily until Fred passed away in 1984. Gert continued to live there on her own until 2003, when she was joined by her eldest daughter. With Geralyn's loving care Gert was able to remain in her own home until May of this year when her deteriorating health required that she move to Judy's Cottage in the Golden Age Manor in Amery. She lived there until entering the hospital on September 27, 2010.

Gertrude was an active life long member of the Lutheran Church, and was a member of Redeemer Lutheran since moving back to Amery in 1976. She was an avid card player, loved to fish (and especially loved out-fishing her sons), read, and cook, and filled her final years embroidering hundreds if not thousands of beautiful dish towels, pillow cases, dresser scarves, and table cloths. These became highly prized heirlooms to her seven children and their spouses, her fourteen grandchildren and their spouses, and 26 great-grandchildren, all of whom survive her. In her younger days she loved to dance. She loved watching sports and enjoyed the company of her cats. The family also remembers her as the type of person who looked at the bright side of life. She kept busy with different projects and was always there when needed. She loved her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and was always quick to thank friends and family for stopping by to see her.

Gertrude was preceded in death by her husband Fred in 1984, by her sister Ann and one great-grandchild, Teddy. She is survived by her seven children. Fred W. (Clara) of St. Cloud, MN., Robert A. (Joy) of Luck, Wisconsin, Geralyn I. of Amery, WI, Jean M. (Jack) Patchett of Woodland Park, CO, David C. (Ann) of Junction City, Kansas, Daniel J. (Marcia) of Big Canoe, Georgia, and Michael P. (Cindy) of Rochester, Minnesota, 14 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren her brother Paul Block, of Cape Coral, Florida.

She was an incredibly warm wonderful woman, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and will be terribly missed by all who knew her.