Marcia L Bretey

Marcia Lou Bretey was born June 26, 1945, at the St. Anthony Hospital in Carroll, Iowa, the daughter of Daniel and Geraldine Rose. She passed away peacefully on Thursday, October 29, 2015, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, at the age of seventy, surrounded by her loving family.
Marcia grew up on a farm near Halbur, Iowa before moving to Westside, Iowa. She was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in Arcadia, Iowa in 1945 and later confirmed there in 1959. She graduated from Ar-We-Va High School in 1963. After completing her education she worked for Builders Lumber until 1982. Marcia was united in marriage to John Bretey on April 24th, 1982, and the couple was blessed with the birth of two sons, Jason and Jared. Marcia started working for the City of Denison on July 5, 1982, as the Assistant City Clerk to Bud Webb until his retirement. She was appointed City Clerk of Denison, April 1, 1987, serving under many mayors and truly enjoyed her work. Upon retirement on August 31, 2010, she was honored with a proclamation naming November 16th “Marcia Bretey Appreciation Day” to commemorate her service to the city of Denison.
Marcia and John enjoyed camping, traveling, fishing, playing cards. She was a huge fan of the Iowa State Cyclones. They loved spending time at Spirit Lake and going to Texas for the winter. She made many new friends there, enjoying the food, and the music. Mexico was a new experience for her with all of the vendors, the dental visits where crowns were $200, pharmacies on every corner, and – of course – the Red Panty Bar.
Marcia started feeling ill in the fall of 2012. After being in and out of the hospital in Texas, we headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester where, after a month of hospital stays and tests, her kidneys failed. She spent 5 weeks doing dialysis in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and finally got to come home to continue recovery. Marcia’s life was centered around dialysis and it was very difficult for her. Her nephew, Steve Moore, offered to donate a kidney and on May 28th, 2015, the transplant took place. She shed many tears over this act of love and gift of life. In the months following the transplant, lab tests showed a decline in kidney functions which led to many trips to Omaha. Doctors did all they could to stop the decline. Admitted to UNMC in Omaha on October 2nd, 2015, she spent her final days fighting kidney failure, severe pneumonia and noro virus diarrhea. She gave up the battle at the Med Center where she passed peacefully at 5:30am Thursday, surrounded by her loving husband, John along with her sons, Jason and Jared.
Our family cannot express our gratitude enough to our family and friends for all of their continued support and prayers during the past 2 years. Being with her family was the most important thing to Marcia. She was truly loved and will be missed dearly.
Marcia was preceded in death by her parents and one sister, Pat. Survivors include: her husband John; two sons: Jason and his wife, Celina; Jared and his wife, Rayanna; four grandchildren: Christian, Nathaniel, Gabriel and Cecilia; one brother, Richard and his wife, Janet; brother-in-law, Gus; many other relatives and friends.