Mary Jane Kaufman, 86, of Tripoli, died Friday, March 21, 2014, at Tripoli Nursing & Rehab in Tripoli, Iowa.

Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 25, 2014, at St. John Lutheran Church in Frederika with Rev. Dale Halverson officiating.  Interment will follow in the Church Cemetery. Friends may call for one hour preceding services at the church on Tuesday. Rettig Funeral Home in Tripoli is assisting Mary Jane’s family. 

Mary Jane Kaufman, daughter of Charles and Bernice O’Connell Kaufman, was born December 3, 1927, in Waucoma, Iowa. She attended school in Waucoma in her early years. Following her father’s death and her mother’s marriage to Ed Barbknecht, Mary Jane made her home with her mother and stepfather in Frederika. She helped around the house and also helped Bernice and Ed with their paper hanging business. After Ed’s death in 1975, Mary Jane and her mother continued to live in Frederika until entering the Bremer County Care Facility (The Larrabee Center). Mary Jane moved from the Larrabee Center to Larrabee Center's supported community living services in Waverly in August of 1999, and entered the Tripoli Nursing Home in August of 2003.

Her survivors include cousins, Wilma Timmerman of Tripoli, Helen Schumacher of Denver, Catherine Burns of Ames, Sharon Phillips of Midland, Michigan, Dean O’Connell of Tripoli, and other cousins.

She was preceded in death by her parents and stepfather, and aunts and uncles.