Irene F. Bensley

Irene F. Bensley, 91, of Sioux City, passed away on Friday, May 31, 2013, at Holy Spirit Retirement Home. Services will be 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Trimble United Methodist Church in Sioux City, with the Rev. Martha Anderson officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the church. Arrangements are with Nelson-Berger Northside Chapel. Online condolences may be sent at www.meyerbroschapels.com. Irene F. (Paulsen) Bensley was born April 22, 1922, on a farm east of Sioux City. She graduated from Lawton (Iowa) High School in 1939. She attended Wayne (Neb.) State Teacher's College, and Westmar College in Le Mars, Iowa, earning a teacher's certificate. For two years, she taught in country schools near Hinton, Iowa. She married Donald R. Bensley in 1944. They were married for 68 years. Irene was a longtime member of Trimble United Methodist Church. In 1967, she began teaching at Fairyland Preschool where she taught hundreds of preschoolers during the more than 20 years she served as head teacher. She was active in education much of her life, also serving as the president of the Lowell School PTA when her sons attended there. She was a kind and loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who enjoyed traveling with her family. She and her husband Don were active in many charitable organizations, frequently sponsoring and entertaining foreign students who visited Sioux City. She will be sorely missed by her family, many friends, and those whose lives she touched. Survivors include her sons, Alan (Nancy) of Midland, Md., and David (Marsha) of Omaha; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Donald Bensley; parents, Paul and Clara Paulsen; brother, Paul F. Paulsen II; and two sisters, Eva Bryant and Berneice Eberly. The family requests memorials in Irene's name to the Heifer Project, to Trimble United Methodist Church, or to a charity of choice.