Chris Monroe

Chris Monroe passed away March 7 following an inspiring battle with metastatic breast cancer. Members of her family were by her bedside when she died.

Chris spent her life doing what she could to make a positive difference in her world. Professionally, that meant spending her entire career working to help Iowa Newspapers make a difference in their communities. She was employed at the Iowa Newspaper Association (INA) in Des Moines, Iowa from 1982 until her retirement in 2016 rising through the ranks from an advertising sales representative to become executive director. The INA represents all of Iowa’s newspapers and despite being located in “flyover country” is one of the nation’s largest and most respected newspaper associations. While in Des Moines, she served on the board of Central Presbyterian Church. When she retired she and her husband Bill moved to Crosslake, Minnesota where the two of them immediately became involved in the Crosslakers, a volunteer organization working to help improve the community of Crosslake. She served as co-chair of that group at the time of her death. She also volunteered to take calls on the Crisis Hotline and served for over a year as director of the Pequot Lakes Chamber of Commerce once again helping to make difference in that community. But she would tell you that her greatest accomplishment was the difference she made in raising her two sons Scott and Wes, both seniors at Iowa State University. The boys truly became young men through the last few months of her illness and none of her professional accomplishments could rival the pride she felt about the accomplishments of her sons. Their character and strength stand as a legacy to their mother.Chris was born December 25, 1959 at Elgin, Illinois. Even though she was a Christmas baby, her family always made sure she had a separate birthday celebration in the evening of the 25th close to the time when she was born. She graduated with a journalism degree from Drake University in Des Moines in 1982.

She was preceded in death by her father Richard and her brother, Scott. She is survived by her husband Bill of Crosslake, mother Coleen Mudge, sister Cheryl (Karl) Matthews, niece Emily, nephews Ryan Peterson, father of two children, Brad (Sarah) Peterson, parents of two children all of Wausau, Wisconsin, stepson Paul (Carla) Monroe of Pella, Iowa parents of seven children and two grandchildren and stepdaughter Lyn (Jason) Firkus of Plover, Wisconsin, parents of two children.

Services will be held Tuesday, March 12 at the Log Church in Crosslake at 11 a.m.

A memorial service will be held in Des Moines, Iowa later in the year.

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