Alderfer, Mary L. Histand (1906-1998)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1998 Jul 16 p. 9

Birth date: 1906 Mar 26

text of obituary:

MARY HISTAND ALDERFER

Mary L. (Histand) Alderfer was born March 26, 1906, in Doylestown, Pa., to Samuel and Susan Landis Histand. She was the eighth of 16 children. She grew up in Doylestown and was baptised at Doylestown Mennonite Church.

Mary attended Eastern Mennonite High School and graduated from the Mennonite School of Nursing in La Junta, Colo., in 1930. She was a homemaker and a registered nurse.

In 1932 Mary married David H. Alderfer. They raised their family in Scottdale, Pa., where David was employed by the Mennonite Publishng House. After 1960, David's work took them west, where they lived first in Chappel, Neb., then Aspen and Denver, Colo. I 1967 the couple returned to Scottdale for retirement. In 1988 they moved to the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in Harrisonburg, Va. Mary was a member of Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

Mary died peacefully June 12, 1998, at Oak Lea Nursing Home in Harrisonburg of complications from heart failure.

Surviving are her husband, David H.; five sons, Joseph of Crete, Ill., Frederick of Aspen, Edward of Hamilton, Ohio, James of Orrville, Ohio, and Daniel of Aspen; a brother James Histand of Newport News, Va.; a sister, Elizabeth Gross of Harrisonburg; 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

At the memorial service at Park View Mennonite Church, Psalms 121, 122 and 123 were read. Mary memorized these in her late 80s.