Hunsberger, Orpha Lucille Brown (1910-2006)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2007 Feb 19 p. 8

Birth date: 1910 Mar 7

text of obituary:

ORPHA HUNSBERGER

Orpha Lucille Brown Hunsberger, 96, of Broken Bow, Neb., died Dec. 20, 2006. She was born March 7, 1910, in Cleveland, Ohio.

She graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1927. She taught biology and home economics in New London, Conn., before moving to Wadsworth, Ohio.

There she married Willard Daykin Hunsberger in 1936. He was the grandson of Ephriam Hunsberger, the first pastor of Wadsworth Mennonite Church in 1852, and the nephew of Noah Hirschy, the first president of Bluffton College.

After their children began school, she began teaching fifth grade at Lincoln School in Wadsworth, where she was a much-loved teacher for many years. She enjoyed singing and playing the piano. She was active in the community as a member of the Art and History Club and the Wadsworth Peace Group. She served many terms on the local library and hospital boards. She and Willard loved to travel. After retirement they visited Western Europe, the former Yugoslavia, Chile, Brazil, Alaska and many other places in the United States and Canada.

She was a member of First Mennonite Church of Wadsworth. When she was 93, she moved to Broken Bow to be closer to her family.

Survivors include four children, Deborah Hunsberger of Omaha, Grace Gehret and her husband, Peter, of Castle Rock, Colo., Grace’s twin, Gretchen Gallentine and her husband, James, of Broken Bow, and Frank Hunsberger and his wife, Chris, of Grand Rapids, Ohio; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Willard.

Memorial services were held at First Presbyterian Church of Broken Bow.