Voth, Katharina Funk (1892-1968)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 May 9 p. 8

Birth date: 1892 Aug 4

text of obituary:

. . .

• Mrs. Katherine Voth, 75, well-known voice and piano teacher here for many years died Sunday at Bethel Deaconess Hospital. She had been in failing health for some time sue to a heart ailment. the widow of Ferdinand Voth, she was the former Katherine Funk and a native of Neubergthal, Manitoba. She was married to Mr. Voth at Herbert Sask., and they came to Newton in 1935. Surviving are a son, Eugene, and a daughter, Mrs. Winifred Sue Darrah, both of Fresno, Calif., and two grandchildren. The funeral will be held Wednesday afternoon at the Bethel College Church, with Rev. Russell L. Mast in charge.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Jul 25 p. 11

text of obituary:

MRS. FERDINAND VOTH

Katharina Funk Voth was born on Aug. 4, 1892 in the Village Neubergthal near Altona, Manitoba, the daughter of Johann and Katharina Klippenstein Funk. At the age of four she moved with her family to Altona where her father had a general store. After an interlude of two years at Rosthern and return to Altona the family moved to Herbert, Sask. when Tina was 18.

She was baptized at Herbert on July 12, 1913 by Elder Frank Sawatzsky and joined the Mennonite church there. She was active in Christian Endeavor work, in Sunday school teaching, in community choir and girls' glee club work. The same year she left for Winnipeg to study piano and voice. From youth she had shown a great aptitude for music, both instrumental and vocal.

In 1916-17 she attended Bluffton College. On returning because of the death of her sister Sarah, she continued lessons from local teachers, also teaching piano besides helping her mother care for an infant nephew, Victor Klassen..

From 1923-1925 she attended Bethel College, receiving a diploma in both piano and voice. Here she met Ferdinand Voth to whom she was married on Aug. 23, 1925 in Herbert, Sask. They shared life's joys and sorrows for nearly 35 years. After teaching at Herbert for two years they moved in 1927 to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas where her father had bought land which Ferdinand supervised. Tina resumed teaching at Donna and Weslaco, Texas, not only private lessons in voice and piano but public school music as well and led junior and senior high school glee clubs and mixed choruses. In 1932 she received the silver cup at the Southwestern State Music Contest.

Her nephew, Victor Klassen, came to live with them at the age of 13. They assisted him through high school and college moving to Newton in 1935 to be near a Mennonite college. Later Ferdinand also finished college and taught in various high schools, but they maintained the home in Newton. Tina became assistant piano teacher at Bethel College in 1937. After 1938 most of the teaching was in the home on West 7th.

Always in love with her profession, Tina tried to instill in her pupils also a love for music. Many of her pupils have taken church positions as pianists, vocalists and choir directors, some teaching in college now. She often expressed herself as thankful to God that he had sought her out to train in this noble work and impart an appreciation for it in the lives of othes [sic].

In 1947 two children, Winifred Sue and Charles Eugene, came to bless their home, whom they cherished and loved as their own. On March 6, 1960 her husband died of a heart attack.

She died of a heart condition in the Bethel Deaconess Hospital, Newton, on Sunday, May 5. Preceding her in death, besides her husband, were four brothers, Dr. Bernard Funk, Jacob, John and Dr. Henry Funk, and two sisters, Sarah, Mrs. Henry Klassen, and Marie, Mrs. Carlos Anderson.

Left to mourn her passing are her daughter Winifred Sue and husband James Darrah, her son Charles Eugene and wife Mary, one grandson and one granddaughter, all of Fresno, Calif.; two sisters-in-law, nephews and nieces and a host of friends and former pupils.

Funeral services were conducted on May 8, 1968 at the Bethel College Mennonite Church where she had been a member since 1953. Rev. Russell Mast used as text John 14:6 for words of comfort ans instruction to the bereaved.

The Mennonite obituary: 1968 May 28 p. 378
The Mennonite obituary: 1968 Jun 18 p. 437