Duerksen, Katherine E. Klassen (1900-2002)

Newton Kansan obituary: 2002 July 22 p. 2

Birth date: 1900

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2002 Sep 2 p. 12

KATHERINE DUERKSEN

Katherine Klassen Duerksen, 101, of Newton, Kan., died July 20, 2002. She was born Sept. 25, 1900, to Peter J. and Maria Fehdrau Klassen and was raised on a farm between Goessel and Moundridge.

She was baptized June 23, 1918, and became a member of Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church, rural Goessel, where she remained a member all her life.

She graduated from Hesston College, majoring in teacher education. She taught school for a number of years at Good Hope Elementary School north of Goessel.

On May 8, 1924, she married Abraham R. Duerksen at Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church and joined him on the farm near Hillsboro.

She applied her teaching skills and interests to the early education of her children and to teaching Sunday school at church.

After retirement from the farm, she and her husband spent several years as caregivers at a children's home near West Liberty, Ohio, and then at a senior citizen care center in Bluffton, Ohio. Her husband died in 1969. She lived at Friendly Acres Care Center in Newton since 1989.

Survivors include two sons, Harold and his wife, Rosella, and Roland and his wife, Mary; two daughters, Elda Roupp and Erna Schmidt and her husband, Orlando; a sister, Ella Klassen Schmidt; 16 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Abraham; brothers George and Rudolf; and a sister, Irma Klassen Janzen.

Funeral services were held at Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church. Burial was in the church cemetery.