O’Brien County, Iowa — Emergency services personnel from all over northwest Iowa gathered Friday morning to remember and celebrate the life of O’Brien County Emergency Management Agency Director Anne Koontz, who passed away unexpectedly earlier this week, at her home in Sanborn.
Koontz had headed the O’Brien County EMA since April, 1984, when she left a position as Executive Director for Sioux-Lakes Emergency Medical Services, a position she had held since 1979.
Her funeral, which was held at 10:30 Friday morning in Sanborn was attended by a large number of emergency services personnel, not just from O’Brien County, but throughout the area. The procession from First Presbyterian Church in Sanborn to East Lawn Cemetery in Sheldon, where Anne was laid to rest, consisted of numerous emergency and law enforcement vehicles from across the region.
At 12:01 pm Friday, the O’Brien County Communications Center activated the pagers of all of the County’s emergency services personnel, with this message, “Attention all stations and all personnel. Effective March 14th, 2016, Anne Koontz made her final call, and is now out of service. She will be missed, but never forgotten. 12:01.”
