Voth, Anna Edna Dirks (1868-1959)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1959 Jul 30 p. 8

Birth date: 1868 Sep 14

text of obituary:

MRS. P. R. VOTH

Anna Edna Dirks Voth was born in Michalin, Berditschow, South Russia on Sept. 14, 1868, and passed away peacefully in Mercy Hospital, Moundridge, Kan., on July 7, 1959, attaining an age of more than 90 years. She was the youngest, and last, of four sisters who formerly resided in the Newton area.

In the autumn of 1874 she arrived in the United States with her parents, Jacob B. and Helena Foth Dirks. The family established a farm home six miles east of the later-founded town of Moundridge, Kan. Mrs. Voth was reared in a devoutly Christian atmosphere, attended local schools, and received religious instruction from Rev. William Galle, who baptized her in the West Zion Mennonite Church, Moundridge, on Nov. 17, 1887, upon the confession of faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior.

When P. R. Voth, a minister of the Alexanderwohl Mennonite church, learned to know the Dirks family he chose Anna as his life companion and they were married on Aug. 1, 1901, in the Alexanderwohl church by Elder Peter Balzer. For three years the young couple remained in the neighborhood while her husband taught school. In 1903 a daughter, Edna, was born and the next year the family together with the maternal parents, established a farm near Gotebo, Okla. Here Mrs. Voth endured the hardships and experienced the rewards of pioneering, shared her energies and concern with those of her husband who ministered to the Friedenstal Mennonite congregation, and gave birth to three sons.

In search of better health and because her husband had been called to minister to the Buhler Mennonite Church, she and her family moved to Kansas in October 1919. She and her husband spent 14 fruitful years in the Buhler community.

Upon retirement, Rev. and Mrs. Voth built a home on the south edge of the Bethel College campus where they spent 21 years—he in the watch repair business and doing gardening, she in tending her precious flowers and in making a pleasant home. Both participated in the activities of the Bethel College Mennonite Church where they have been members since 1937. In April, 1959 they became residents of the Memorial Home for the Aged, Moundridge, where they found companionship and loving care. Her final hospitalization lasted three days.

Funeral services were held on July 9, beginning with a brief worship in the Memorial Home for the Aged, where E. E. Flickner, administrator, made appropriate remarks. Rev. Russell L. Mast was in charge of all services and gave the message of comfort in the Bethel College Mennonite church. Burial was in Greenwood cemetery.

An infant daughter, Edna, preceded her in death in 1904. Surviving and cherishing her memory are her husband, Rev. Peter R., aged 89, and three sons and their families: Paul, his wife Selma, daughter Pamela of Chicago, Ill. and daughter Felice, Mrs. Clyde Goering, of Moundridge; Menno, his wife Bertha, and daughter Carol of Waldwick, New Jersey; and Rudolf, his wife Evelyn, and son Gregory and daughter Marguerite of Tacoma, Wash.