Ancestors

Zeedine F. Ruter

Zeedine F. Ruter, called Sadie, was born on 5 April 1911 at Upleward, a village in East Frisia on the North Sea coast of Germany. She was the daughter of Zeede Gerdes Ruter and Frauke Gesina Freerksen. In 1924, when she was thirteen, the family left Upleward for Ogle County, Illinois, and she lived in Illinois until she married.

Ten years after she arrived, on 14 February 1934, Valentine's Day, she married Minert Pannkuk, a son of Boyd Pannkuk of Titonka, Iowa. Minert's mother, Rentje Smidt, had been born at Upleward too, thirty-six years before Sadie. The couple farmed half a mile east of German Valley in Kossuth County. Their first son, Eugene Richard, called Gene, was born on 23 December 1936, two days before his grandfather Zeede's birthday. A second son, Ronald M. Pannkuk, was born on 19 July 1941 in Buffalo Center, Iowa, and there was also a daughter, Joyce. The family later moved to northern Illinois, near her parents.

Sadie Pannkuk outlived her husband by more than ten years. She died on 2 February 2005 and is buried beside the Pannkuk family at Forreston Grove Cemetery in Forreston, Ogle County, Illinois.

If Zeedine F. Ruter is in your family, start your own tree.

Researched October 2026. Cite: Heirology, "Zeedine F. Ruter (1911-2005)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/zeedine-f-ruter-1911-2005-0210c3.