Maria (Mary) Elena Pena Thorsheim Obituary (1948 - 2024)

Born Aug 19, 1948, Maria (Mary) Elena Pena Thorsheim attended Urbana High School in Urbana, OH. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Maria (mary) Elena Pena Thorsheim.

Graduation Year	Class of 1968
Date of Birth	Aug 19, 1948
Date of Passing	Aug 21, 2024
About	Burial of cremains will take place at a later date. Maria Elena (Peña) Thorsheim was born at home on August 18, 1948 in Mission, TX. The second born and eldest daughter and Luz and Isabel (Luna) Peña, there was nine Peña children in total. She loved her siblings deeply and despite age gaps they were all incredibly close. They also had somewhere between 8-94 neighborhood kids that came in the morning and stayed into the night. One stayed longer than the rest, later becoming her brother-in-law. Everyone participated in keeping the house running and taking care of each other. Neighbor kids were no exception. She was rarely without something to do or someone to talk to. She loved when they went to the Drive in Movie Theater as a family/neighborhood and all 1800 of them would hop in/on the family station wagon and go together. She attended St. Mary’s Catholic School K-8th Grade and Graduated from Urbana High School in 1967. She married her high school sweetheart Alex Cardosa November 29th, 1968 and her son David Cardosa was born August 25th, 1969. Alex and Maria divorced in 1972. They remained friends until she passed. In 1973 Maria married Julian Gonzalez. That same year her favorite child (Her words. definitely not his.) Felipé Gonzalez was born. Maria and Julian separated in 1976 and later divorced. They remained best friends until his passing. That same year Maria moved to Iowa from Ohio and took over a cousin’s lease in Manly and started taking college classes at Hamilton Business School College in Mason City for Data entry, switch board and typing. In 1977 Maria met Kevin Thorsheim at the Big Oak Lounge in Forest City, Iowa. Kevin asked her out and Maria said No. She said Yes the second time he asked and they dated and were married August 13th, 1983. They built their first home that same year. In 1985 Jenna Thorsheim was born and in 1987 Kristofer Thorsheim was born. Maria worked several different jobs throughout her life. There wasn’t much she couldn’t do. Some of the more memorable ones were when she worked on The Mid-America Pipeline that went through the Midwest in the late 1980’s. When she left, she was the only woman left among over 800 men on her crew. She worked at Winnebago Industries for a few years before joining Kevin at 3M and worked there for 16 years there. She was the go-to for Spanish interpreting; mainly for Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department but assisted in surrounding counties at hospitals, schools and court proceedings. She did this as needed for over 20 years. Maria could speak 6 different dialects of Spanish fluently and a couple dialects of Italian. She waitressed at Sportsman’s Bar and Grill for a number of years while also working at Kum & Go and finally Casey’s Convenience Store both in Forest City before taking early retirement to assist her mother-in-law with home care throughout the week. She was an avid gardener, loved reading, thrift shopping, she loved to have a good argument but mostly just ones she could win. Dancing!! Family gatherings!! Visting with people! Maria was a special lady and will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved her. Maria is survived by her husband Kevin Thorsheim of Forest City, IA; children, David (Donna) Cardosa, Felipe (Teka) Gonzalez, Jenna (Heath) Waymire, and Kristofer Thorsheim; grandchildren Miguel, Malea (Brylan), Felipe Jr, Andres (Justice), Christiano (Mia), Jayde (Timothy), Vanessa (Ashton), and Rosemary; great-grandchildren, Leo, Kasen, Martin and Halden; sisters, Elia (Phil) Laird, Elba (Gary) Preteroti, Robert (Sharon) Pena, John (Gayle) Pena, Joey Pena, Tony (Sheila) Pena; sister-in-law, Kendra Berkeland; many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews Maria was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Leonel Pena and Arnold Pena; her parents-in-laws, Lloyd and Arlene Thorsheim; ex-husband, Julian Gonzalez, brother-in-law, Mark Berkeland a great- niece, Alivia Laird.