Histand, Eunice May Gingerich (1914-2006)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2006 Nov 6 p. 12

Birth date: 1914 May 30

text of obituary:

EUNCIE MAY HISTAND

Eunice May Histand, 92, of Greencroft Retirement Community in Goshen, Ind., died Sept. 29, 2006, at Goshen General Hospital. She was born May 30, 1914, in Versailles, Mo., to Amos and Nannie (Yoder) Gingerich.

She graduated from Hesston (Kan.) Academy in 1933 and Hesston College in 1936. She obtained a teaching certificate from Kansas State Teachers College in Hays and taught school for two years before her marriage to Nelson W. Histand, an ordained minister, on July 17, 1938.

Together they served Mennonite churches in Culp, Ark., Pryor, Okla., Dunlap, Ind., Noxubee County, Miss., Parnell, Iowa, and Carlsbad, N.M. In Carlsbad she was a teacher’s aide in a school for special education and disabled children. They also farmed in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Iowa.

They retired to Hesston in 1981, where he died in March 1988. After moving to Greencroft in 1989 to be closer to family, she participated in many Greencroft and College Mennonite Church activities.

Her life was dedicated to caring for her family and the church. She treasured the friendships she had forged in each of the communities in which she lived.

She was a gifted gardener. She was well known in the Greencroft community for her creation of and care for a beautiful, extensive flower bed.

Survivors include four daughters, Marian Schwabbauer and her husband, Ivan, of Coralville, Iowa, Carol Lehman and her husband, Maurice, of Goshen, Delores Friesen and her husband, Stanley, of Fresno, Calif., and Catharine Lichti and her husband, Don, of St. Louis, Mo.; four sons, John Histand and his wife, Nancy, of Portland, Ore., Stan Miller Histand and his wife, Carol, of Soldotna, Alaska, and Goshen, Timothy Histand of Portland, Ore., and James Histand and his wife, Linda, of Goshen; a sister, Lois Bender of Kalona, Iowa; three brothers, Paul Gingerich of Kalona, Simon Gingerich of Elkhart and Clayton Gingerich of Kalona; 26 grandchildren; 41 great-grandchildren and a great-great-granddaughter.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Nelson; four brothers, Leroy Gingerich, Fred Gingerich, Truman Gingerich and Orie Gingerich; a sister, Charity Troyer; a grandchild, Melissa Lehman; and a great-grandchild, Nathan Lichti.

Memorial services were held at College Mennonite Church in Goshen. Burial will be at Eastlawn Cemetery, Hesston, Kan.