Marie (Flaming) Rupp

Marie Flaming Rupp

Marie Flaming Rupp, 97, social worker, homemaker and journalist, died Monday (Dec. 26, 2005) at Clear Creek Care Center in Westminster, Colo., where she lived near her son Larry Rupp, of Arvada, Colo., president of Navajo Manufacturing Co. She was born Nov. 6, 1908, to Aganetha Flaming and the Reverend Peter Flaming, a minister at the Hoffnungsau Mennonite Church of Inman for 60 years. Her parents came over in the 1874 migration from Russia. She graduated from Buhler High School and proceeded to Bethel College, finishing in 1933.

While at Bethel College, Mrs. Rupp chartered the International Relations Club. It is now a very prominent organization at the college where students of various ethnic origins attend. It was at Bethel College where she met Carl H. Rupp. However, they married some years later in 1947 and had three children: Larry, Carla Marie Rupp, a journalist and musician of New York City, and John Edward Rupp, who preceded Mrs. Rupp in death at age 18 months.

Mrs. Rupp was urged by the president of Bethel College in the 1930s to further her education at the University of Chicago and the Graduate School of Social Work. She worked for the Social Services Department in Chicago during the Great Depression. She served as a senior caseworker and also as an intake worker. Her social work career lasted 15 years, including working as county welfare director in Morton County and as juvenile court officer and county welfare director in Liberal.

Marie was a longtime Newton area resident and former freelance writer. She died of natural causes and was considered to be one of the oldest polio survivors in the country. She was active in polio support groups and wrote creative writing about her polio experience, including poems and stories. She was at one time an active member of the Newton Area Creative Writer's Group and also the Kansas Author's Club.

Many of her feature articles about ordinary Kansans with interesting hobbies and accomplishments appeared in Kansas newspapers including the Hutchinson News, Wichita Eagle and Mennonite Weekly. She also wrote about the people in the Moundridge community for the McPherson Sentinel and was paid by the inch.

Her hobbies including swimming, and she was a frequent visitor to the pool at the Newton Recreation Center.

Other survivors also include: grandchildren, Jason and Samantha, Lani, Lari and Lana.

Services will be 11 a.m. Monday at the West Zion Mennonite Church in Moundridge where she was a member. Viewing and meeting with the family will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Burial will follow at the church cemetery, and all are asked to stay for lunch at the church.