Lois Rosenthal 08/02/2026

Lois Mae (Meswarb) Rosenthal, age 93, December 25, 1932-August 2, 2026. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, friend. Known to her family as “Queen Grandma”, or “QG”.

Lois was born at home on a family farm in Tripoli, IA, to Henry and Minnie Meswarb.She was the third of 4 children: Virgil, Marlys, and Mardell, her younger sister who was her lifelong best friend. She attended a one room school in Tripoli until she went to high school. She married her high school sweetheart, Douglas, (who escorted her during her two reigns as Homecoming Queen), and joined him in El Paso, TX, where he was a percussionist in the U.S. Army Marching Band. After discharge from the Army, they

moved back to Traer, IA, and then to the Minneapolis area, where they raised 3 sons. Doug worked as an elementary school band director; Lois worked as a church organist as a teenager, as a bank teller after high school, a homemaker when their sons were young, then at Daytons and an office supply company. Lois and Doug constructed their retirement home by themselves on Strand Lake in Cotton, MN, where they lived happily for more than 30 years. In the winter, they traveled the world with Road Scholar and spent time in Florida with Stan.

She was a creative and talented musician, artist, and cook, and an all around good and cheerful sport, and is remembered by family and friends for her sharp wit, determined and patient optimism, her ability to bake bars over a campfire or to supply a family wedding, make beautiful flower arrangements out of weeds from the woods, play the piano in the family Dixieland Band, the accordion on the curb at Grandma’s Marathon, and run a neighborhood painting class. In her later years, she was always up for boating, shopping, lunches and hikes with her friends. She leaves behind a treasury of beautiful paintings and a legacy of unfailing hope.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Douglas, their infant daughter, Jane, and her 3 siblings. She is survived by 3 sons, Jeff (Ann) Rosenthal, Stanton (Laura) Rosenthal, and Brian (Becky) Rosenthal, Grandchildren Erin (Brian) Howe, Michael Rosenthal (Rachael Hillman), Adam (Tori) Rosenthal, and Brennan Rosenthal, and Great Grandchildren Isaac, Elijah, and Lucas Howe, Norah and Jude Rosenthal.

Cremation services provided by Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services.