Simer, Gertrude "Trude" (Baden) On Septem-ber 8, 2014, Gertrude "Trude" (Baden) Simer passed on into history and memory. She was born in 1918 on the family farm in Forest City Township, MN at a time when some local farmers were certain a tractor could never replace a good team of horses. Her great-grandchildren enjoyed hearing her memories about riding to school on a pony, shooting a draft horse with a BB gun to make it go faster, seeing veterans of WW1, Spanish-American, and Civil Wars marching together in Armistice Day parades, and so many others. After graduating from Litchfield High School she came to the "big city." to get her RN degree from the Northwestern Hospital School of Nursing. In 1939 she met a patient named Loren Simer, who had been injured in an accident at Northern Ordnance. She would marry him a few months later and they would have ten children, innumerable pets, and many adventures together. One of her most memorable adventures was when the family lived for a number of years on a small ranch near the end of a gravel road in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana near Yellowstone. Loren traveled to support the family, and Trude spent 5-6 days a week without a car managing the children, dogs, cats, cows, horses, and sheep. Trude always found time to volunteer, including over 20 years with the Girl Scouts, 10 years with the Boy Scouts, and 10 years with the Teenage Medical Services (TAMS). She taught home nursing and health care during World War II, worked with Sister Kenny during polio epidemics in the early 1950s and also volunteered with the Red Cross, YWCA, numerous PTA's, and the University of Alaska - Fairbanks, where at the age of 70 she spent weeks outdoors studying Musk Oxen with the Earthwatch program. Preceded in death by husband Loren, brother Harold, two children (Lora and Trudi), and one grandchild (Joanna). Survived by sister Bette Sibell, 8 children: Loren Jr. (Gerri), Cynthia Helphrey, Stephanie Arnesen (Peter), Peter (Cyndy), Harvey (Cheryl), Karl (Lisa), Christopher, and Frank; 8 grandchildren (Daniel Helphrey, Caitlin Mercer, Ingrid Asztalos, Bjorn Arnesen, and Joshua, Kurt, Fletcher, and Laurel Simer; 3 great-grand-children, and many other friends and relatives. She will be profoundly missed by all who loved her. A private interment is planned and a memorial service will be announced later. Please make donations to Trude's selected charity: the Joanna Simer Memorial Fund, University of Minnesota Foundation, PO Box 860266, Minneapolis MN 55486. In lieu of flowers, please plant a tree in Trude's name at a location dear to you. "For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes- not that you won or lost - But how you played the Game."