Cecil Menke and Luella Steffensmeier were married on May 3 , 1952 in St Mary’s Catholic Church in West Point, Iowa. Both Cecil and Luella are related to Walt by marriage on the Wellman branch of the family.

Cecil Menke was born on July 9, 1928 in Salem Iowa to Bernard and Elizabeth Bentler Menke. He was the fifth of 6 children born to the couple. They lived on a farm. Cecil registered for the draft in 1946 upon reaching the age of 18. I found a photo of him in uniform, but don’t know about his service.

The 1950 census shows him living on his parent’s farm, working as a farm hand.

Luella Steffensmeier was born on February 21, 1929 in Lee County, Iowa. She was the fourth child born to William and Christina Pomberg Steffensmeier. They had two more children before William died in 1935. 1940 finds the family living on the farm, with Christina listed as a proprietor.

In 1950, Luella is living with a roommate in Fort Madison. She is working as a cashier in auto sales and service.

Marriage of Cecil and Luella

Cecil and Luella were married in West Point, Iowa at St Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church on May 5th, 1952. They lived for a time in the West Point area and had 4 children. In May of 1966, they moved to Carroll, Iowa, where the started a hardware store. The business was sold in 1985. Cecil also worked as a realtor and at the high school.

The family moved to Minnesota. Luella died on December 3, 2021. Cecil died on Jun 5, 2023. Both were buried in Calvary Cemetery in West Point, Iowa.

Luella is a niece of Dorothy and Robert Steffensmeier. I talked about Dorothy here. Cecil is the cousin of Linus Menke, the husband of Mary Bentler, who I talked about here.