Friesen, Mary Duerksen (1882-1968)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1969 Jan 30 p. 11

Birth date: 1882 Nov

text of obituary:

MRS. MARY FRIESEN

Mrs. Mary Friesen, daughter of Cornelius and Maria Toews Duerksen, was born in Hillsboro, Kan. in November 1892 [sic 1882] and died in Oklahoma City, Okla. on Dec. 29, 1968 at the age of 86 years and one month.

Mary grew up in the Rev. J. A. Wiebe home since her father died when she was young and her mother, having a large family, could not support them all. Her mother later married Jacob Hildebrandt and gathered her family together. They came to Weatherford, Okla. in 1904 and homesteaded six miles southwest of Weatherford.

Here Mary met J. E. Friesen and they were married in November 1900. They lived on a farm four miles south of Weatherford. Later they lived in Western Kansas and California, and also at Hillsboro, Kan., but moved back to Weatherford. In Western Kansas they experienced several years of drought and hard times.

She accepted Christ as her Savior in 1898 and became a member of the K.M.B. Church. Later, in 1944, she joined the Methodist church when they lived in Weatherford. She enjoyed her Sunday school class and the preaching service as long as she was able to attend.

She had several severe mishaps. One time a car backed over her as she was crossing the street. Next she fell while she was still living alone and suffered a broken foot. This was in October 1967. From then on the doctor said she could not live alone anymore. She was then almost 85 years old. After hospitalization she was taken to a nursing home, but she still longed to be alone in her rented home. Several nieces and nephews living in and around Weatherford visited her and tried to help in any way possible.

On Christmas day she was led to the dining table, and complained about her leg. As she got up from the table she fell, breaking a hip. She was taken to the local hospital, later to an Oklahoma City hospital for surgery. On Sunday morning her heart failed and she died.

Her husband preceded her in death in 1956, and a son Edward in 1954 by drowning.

Survivors include two sons, Gordon and Oliver, in New York; four daughters, Mrs. Frances Merchant of Redlands, Calif., Mrs. Esther Reifsneider of Dallas, Ore., Mrs. Evelyn Wilson of Medford, Ore., and Mrs. Ruth Quinlan of Cohusset [sic Cohasset], Mass.; nine grandchildren; two brothers, John T. Duerksen of Canada and Abe Hildebrand of Dallas, Ore.; one sister, Mrs. Katherine Peters of Portland, Ore.; nieces and nephews. — Mrs. Frank Zacharias.