Hayward, Anna H. Duerksen (1886-1972)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1972 Sep 28 p. 11

Birth date: 1886 May 6

text of obituary:

SISTER ANNA H. HAYWARD

Sister Anna H. Duerksen Hayward was born at Goessel, Kan. on May 6, 1886 and passed to her heavenly Home on July 27, 1972 at the age of 86 in the Good Samaritan Hospital, Portland, Ore., the victim of an undetermined type of cancer.

Sister Anna graduated from the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in the summer of 1913. The first year was spent in Oklahoma, where she worked under the General Conference of Mennonites, caring for patients in their homes wherever needed.

In the fall of 1914 she and her sister Marie received an urgent call to come to American Falls, Idaho, to the Bethany Deaconess Hospital. The first year they assisted with nursing. Also frequently they were sent to rural homes to nurse the sick, sometimes going over mountain roads in a lumber wagon for 70 miles. From July 1915 to 1916 she was in charge of a 12-bed hospital in Burley, Idaho.

In 1916 Sister Anna, Sister Marie Wedel, Sister Martha Wedel, Sister Marie Justina Duerksen and F. B. Wedel, Sr., as founder, opened the Salem Deaconess Hospital. The first hospital was a remodeled home with room for 12 patients. In 1948 the capacity was 137. The hospital had a nurses training school from 1918 to 1933. Sister Anna was one of the instructors. She was anesthetist till 1945, and full Supervisor of Nurses 1918 to 1931, when she divided her duties with Miss Mary L. W. Regier.

Sister Anna was in charge of the Cottage Home from 1941 to 1948. When the Cottage Home was sold, she began to work at the Salem Memorial Hospital again (a change in name).

In March of 1944 Sister Anna married J. P. Hayward, who had worked as architect and general repair man for many years, also at the American Falls Hospital in Idaho. The happy marriage was ended Dec. 3, 1951 when her husband went to his heavenly Home. She continued her nursing career for ten more years, working the night shift, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

She leaves to mourn her passing: an adopted daughter, Mrs. Mary Stofer, her husband Ray and two grandchildren; a foster daughter, Mrs. Ruth Jensen and husband Elwood; brothers Peter J. Duerksen, Mountain Lake, Minn.; Ben and John Duerksen of Oklahoma City, Okla.; sisters Marie Froese of Hutchinson, Kan., Sarah Pallesen of Salem, Ore., Helen Gordon of San Antonio, Texas, Kathrin Taggart of Fort Cobb, Okla., Justina West of Dallas, Texas, Martha Shaver of Oklahoma City, Okla., Linda Miller of St. Louis, Mo., Sue Snarr of Oklahoma City, Frieda Williams of Salem, Oregon; sister-in-law, Mrs. C. A. Duerksen; 23 nieces and nephews. A large number of the cousins live near Newton and Goessel, Kan.

The funeral was held July 29, 1972 at the Garden Chapel of the Howell, Edwards, Doerksen Mortuary, with burial in Mission Cemetery at Salem, Oregon. Rev. Wilbert Regier of the Pratum Mennonite Church officiated. Sister Anna had been a member of the Pratum Mennonite Church for a number of years.