Suckau, Marie F. (1882-1965)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1965 Jul 1 p. 5

Birth date: 1882 Mar 29

text of obituary:

. . .

• Mari F. Suckau, 83, retired missionary who had resided at the Bethel Home for Aged since 1949, died at the Home Tuesday morning. Miss Suckau had served on the Africa field for three years and in Alabama for 21 years. She was a member of the First Mennonite Church here. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the Sister Frieda Memorial Chapel, with Rev. John Thiessen in charge.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1965 Nov 18 p. 11

text of obituary:

MARIE SUCKAU

Marie Suckau was born March 29, 1882, on a farm near Halstead, Kan. where her parents, John and Maria (Andreas) Suckau, had settled when as a young couple they left their home in West Prussia, Germany.

In their early years Marie, her younger sister Anna, and their older brother Cornelius lost in death their older brother John and their dear mother. However, they continued to attend the elementary school and later Bethel Academy, which Marie attended only for a short period.

Miss Suckau was a member of the first Mennonite Church, Newton, and always had the desire to serve the Lord. When her brother Cornelius prepared for the mission field and with his young wife went to India in 1912, Marie also went to the missionary school in New York and, following a call, went to Liberia, Africa approximately in 1916 to work among the children there.

Not being able to overcome attacks of malaria, she was forced to return to America in 1920. On her way she stopped in Germany to visit her father and her new stepmother.

Having spent some years with her sister in New York and with relatives in Kansas, she and her sister Anna answered a request to work among the Negro children and their parents in Elberta, Alabama. Here they lived and worked among the Negroes, started a small congregation, and were loved by the community until after 21 years, in January 1949, Anna died after a period of severe suffering.

The small congregation had a minister, so Marie left Elberta in early spring and came to Elbing, Kan. to live with a relative for several months. On Oct. 1, 1949, she became a resident of Bethel Home, Newton.

Miss Suckau loved the Lord, and during the years at the Home she witnessed as her health and strength permitted.

During the past five or more years Miss Suckau suffered severe pain, about which she would speak very little. Her strength began to fail and the morning of June 29, 1965 she passed from this home to the Hume where she longed to be.

The only members of the family living are: Dr. and Mrs. Ted Suckau Youngs (nephew), Christopher and William, Santa Cruz, Calif., Rev. and Mrs. John (Edna) Gerstner (niece), Judy, Rachel and Jonathan, Hillsview, Ligonier, Pa.

The Mennonite obituary: 1965 Aug 3 p. 495