Augusta Pearl Hanson

Augusta “Gustie” Pearl Hanson, the infant daughter of Peter Christopher Hanson and Rebecca Ann Sallee Hanson of Grinnell, was born and died on Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City. A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 7th at the United Church of Christ – Congregational in Grinnell with Rev. Wendy Abrahamson officiating. Pallbearers are Jonathan Hanson and William Sallee. Interment will be at Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell. Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday at the Smith Funeral Home in Grinnell, and from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. on Saturday at the United Church of Christ – Congregational in Grinnell. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be designated to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital Pediatric Palliative Care: Perinatal, or to Tiger Packs, a program to provide food to Grinnell schoolchildren in need, mailed in care of the Smith Funeral Home, PO Box 368, Grinnell, Iowa 50112. Memories and condolences may be shared with the Hanson family online at www.smithfh.com. Gustie’s time with her family was brief but filled with love. They had nine wonderful months with her. Inside her mama’s belly, she shared stories and songs with her siblings at bedtime, and listened to them laugh and talk with her. She delighted her family with her squirms and kicks. They are forever grateful for these moments with her, and are heartbroken that they will not have an opportunity to see the toddler, child, teenager and woman she would have become. Her parents knew her challenges were serious before she was born. Her lungs did not develop properly in the womb. After she was born, she was cared for with determination and compassion by the doctors, nurses and staff of the University of Iowa hospital. She was a fighter, and stood her ground for two hours despite her lack of lung tissue. She died in her mother’s arms, and was tended to with love by her parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Gustie is survived by her parents, Peter Hanson and Rebecca Sallee Hanson of Grinnell; her siblings, Thea and Jonathan Hanson of Grinnell; paternal grandparents, Gary and Julie Hanson of Lenexa, Kansas; maternal grandmother, Carol Sallee of Spencer, Wisconsin; paternal aunt and uncle, Siri (Neal) Campbell of Lenexa, Kansas and Jonathan (Katharine Chang) Hanson of Ann Arbor, Michigan; and maternal aunt and uncle, Elizabeth (Robert Bauer) Sallee Bauer of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin and William (Breanne) Sallee of Roseville, Minnesota; and by 11 cousins. Gustie was preceded in death by her maternal grandfather, Allan Sallee.