Bartel, Lily Ann (1928-1948)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1948 May 13 p. 3

Birth date: 1928 Jul 27

text of obituary:

LILY ANN BARTEL

Lily Ann Bartel was born July 27, 1928, at Fairview, Oklahoma and died April 26, 1948 at the St. Francis hospital, Wichita, Kansas. She reached the age of 19 years eight months and 29 days.

The elementary school years she enjoyed in the South Side School and one year in high school in Cordell, Oklahoma. For three years she attended the Corn Bible School and Academy. Upon graduation she went to Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kans., where in her second year sickness and finally death took her from the ranks of her college friends.

In the year of 1930 the family moved to Coldwater, Texas, where they endured the dust storms. The fall and winter of 1933 were spent in California, where Lily Ann took sick with double pneumonia, which nearly took her life, leaving some after-effects.

In the spring of 1936 she moved to Cordell with her parents. Here she flowered into girlhood, becoming the spiritual sunbeam of the home in spite of, or perhaps rather through her physical suffering. The radiant light with which she enriched the home will ever abide until we join her in that celestial home which our Saviour has prepared for us.

In her early youth she realized her lost and undone condition and accepted the Lord Jesus as her personal Saviour. On June 14, 1942, she was baptized and received into the fellowship of the Bessie M. B. church in which she remained faithful unto the end.

Lily Ann loved her Lord and Saviour dearly and served Him faithfully in many ways. She was an active church member, teaching Sunday School classes, playing the piano for the church services and the choir, and on many programs she served with vibraharp music to beautify the services. She also enjoyed teaching daily vacation Bible school and during the three years of her teaching led several young souls to the personal acceptance of the Saviour.

She was a happy, ambitious, and obedient Child of God and her one great desire in life was to serve Him in whatever field He would call her. On Tuesday, April 6 she gave her last public testimony at the Joint Prayer Service in Tabor College in the words of a hymn:

"My Jesus, as Thou wilt! O may Thy will be mine!
Into thy hand of love I would my all resign.
Through sorrow, or through joy, conduct me as thine own;
And help me still to say, My Lord, Thy will be done.”

Before Christmas she braved a very serious operation on her right lung at the St. Francis hospital in Wichita. After she had recovered and become stronger she was to have an operation on her left lung.

Saturday, April 24, she endured the second operation and all seemed to be successful, until Sunday noon when complications set in. Her overwrought heart was unable to carry the extra load which these complications imposed. She lost consciousness temporarily, regaining it later, but she did not regain her ability to speak. On Monday morning at 3:15 her soul took its flight unto Him, who redeemed her and whom she loved and served so gladly. One of her favorite hymns was “Leave It There." We feel that the second verse especially fitted the experiences of her life:

“If your body suffers pain and your health you can't regain,
And your soul is almost sinking in despair,
Jesus knows the pain you feel, He can save and He can heal,
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there."

She leaves to mourn her early departure her parents, the H. H. Bartels, and her only sister, Marlene; her grandparents, Henry Bartels, of Corn, Oklahoma; and her grandparents on her mother's side, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Bartel of Dinuba, California; four uncles, eleven aunts, 38 cousins and a host of relatives and friends.

We sorrow, but only as such who have the glorious hope of a reunion with all the saints in the presence of the Lord. — The bereaved family.