Funeral services for Grace B. Ranniger, 92, of Scranton, will be 10:30am Saturday February 20, 2010 at Slininger-Rossow Funeral Home in Jefferson. Interment will be in the Jefferson Cemetery. Friends may call at Slininger-Rossow Funeral Home in Jefferson after 10:30am Friday where the family will greet friends from 3:00 – 5:00pm Friday.

Grace Berdeen Battles, daughter of Rose Beatrice Shriver Battles and Ai Porter Battles, was born December 21, 1917 on a farm in Jackson Township, Greene County, Iowa. When Grace was seventeen months old, she moved with her parents and brother and sisters to a farm one mile north of Bayard.

Grace attended Bayard school from the time she was five years old until her high school graduation in 1935. In high school she played basketball for four years, and sang in the glee club. Grace belonged to the Methodist Church.

In 1936, Grace married Reed Ocker. To this union, two sons were born: Jerry and Bobby. The family lived in Jefferson where Grace worked in the Blaess Shoe Store and later for J.C. Penney’s.

Later, Grace moved to California where she managed a dry cleaners and again, worked for Penny’s. Grace was married to Howard Ranniger on April 9, 1967 at Carson City, Nevada. They remodeled several houses and refinished furniture in their home.

Grace loved going to go to swap meets and thrift stores where she bought dolls that needed lots of tender loving care. She would clean the dolls and fix their hair, then dress them in formals that she sewed from full sized formals purchased at Salvation Army and Goodwill stores.

Following her husband’s death, Grace moved back to Jefferson, Iowa in 1992 where she lived two years until a real estate friend found her a large home in Scranton. Grace papered and painted the entire twelve room home and gave each one of her over 3,500 dolls a special display area. In 1994 she opened Dollyville for tours. Over the years several hundred people have come in vans and busloads from all over the United States and from as far away as Germany to view the dolls and her many other fine collections.

Grace Ranniger died at her home in Scranton, Iowa on February 16, 2010. She was 92 years of age. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Howard Ranniger who died in 1991; her son Robert “Bobby” Ocker who died in military service in 1962; a brother, Elwood Battles; and sisters Pauline DeLong, Mildred Williams and Marjorie Baker.

Grace is survived by her son, Jerold “Jerry” Ocker and his wife Mary Alice of Roscoe, Illinois; four granddaughters: Diana Sancya and her husband Paul; Linda Rynbrandt and her husband Ronald; Alisa Liu and her husband Kai Tak Liu; and Brenda Wozniak and her husband Mark; seven great grandchildren; and sister-in-law Virginia Battles of Bayard, Iowa.