Petkau, Elizabeth (1934-1965)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1965 Feb 11 p. 3

Birth date: 1935

text of obituary:

Anthrax Caused Death Of Missionary Nurse

Hillsboro, Kan. — The Mennonite Brethren missions office here received word on Feb. 6 that Miss Elizabeth Petkau, 30, a missionary nurse, had died in a hospital in Durango City, Mexico.

Death was reportedly due to anthrax, an infectious disease of warm-blooded animals. It is usually transmitted to humans by flies.

Miss Petkau, a native of Vauxhall, Alberta, had been stationed at a maternity clinic in Nuevo Ideal, 80 miles northwest of Durango City. She went to Mexico last summer.

The memorial service and burial were conducted Sunday morning, Feb. 7, in Durango City.

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The Mennonite obituary: 1965 Mar 2 p. 139

text of obituary:

Elizabeth Petkau, Vauxhall, Alta., a missionary nurse in Mexico since Sept. for the Mennonite Brethren church died of anthrax in Durango on Feb. 6. She was 31 years old.

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Mennonite Brethren Herald obituary: 1965 Mar 19. p. 18

Birth date: 1934 Nov 9

ELIZABETH PETKAU

Elizabeth Petkau was born November 9, 1934 in a small, two-roomed house in Waldhim, Sask., the third child of David and Lizzie Petkau. There she spent the first few years of her life. In 1937 the family moved to Vauxhall, Alberta where they have lived since.

She received her early education at Vauxhall, interrupting her studies only once after grade 11, to help her mother, who was ill, for a year. At the age of nine she accepted Christ as her personal Saviour and at 13 was baptized upon her confession and accepted into the Mennonite Brethren church. After completion of high school, she continued her studies at the Coaldale Bible School for two years and then went on to take nurse's training at the Lethbridge Municipal Hospital. She often experienced inner struggles but her life demonstrated the motto: "If I cannot do what I want to do, then I want to do what I can."

After nurse's training Elizabeth felt led of the Lord to go to the MB Bible College where she studied a further three years, 1959-62. While at the Bible College she gave her life unconditionally to God to use as he willed. At her graduation her parents recall that she led them through the buildings and then stepping into the prayer room, knelt with them in prayer, thanking God for the College, its teachers, and the opportunities and conviction God had given to her there.

Following Bible College she worked for a time at the Taber, Alta. Municipal Hospital and then responding to a call, at the Bethesda Home, Vineland. After less than a year at Vineland she was accepted into the mission program of the conference, studied Spanish at the language school in Costa Rica, was commissioned to service by the Vauxhall church, and in the fall of 1964 entered the ranks of the mission staff in Mexico. After four short months of labour the Lord called her to higher service.

She passed away at 30 years, predeceased, by one brother. She is survived by her parents, eight brothers and five sisters. The family has sensed the genuine participation of many brethren and sisters in Canada, the United States and Mexico, in their sorrow. This has been a great comfort to them.

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Mennonite Brethren Herald obituary: 1975 Feb 7 p. 29

In loving memory of my dear friend, Elizabeth Petkau, who gave her life in Mexico in February, 1965.

"0 Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved,as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

Remembered by Mabel J. Friesen Bruce