Emma Matilda (Bruns) Bartels, 93, of Alma, formerly of Wilcox, died Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008, at Good Samaritan Society in Alma.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. John's Lutheran Church in Wilcox with the Rev. Ken Birtell of Holdrege and Vicar Mel Mertens of Wilcox officiating. Burial will be at St. John's Lutheran Cemetery near Wilcox.

Visitation will be from noon to 8 p.m. today (Saturday) and Sunday at Banta-Torrey Funeral Home in Wilcox and before services Monday at the church.

She was born March 18, 1915, in rural Beatrice in Gage County to J. Henry and Tena (Meints) Bruns.

On Oct. 18, 1936, she married Theodore "Ted" Bartels in Kimball. He died Nov. 7, 1999.

Survivors include her sons, Arlyn and his wife, Jean, of Las Cruces, N.M., and Daniel and his wife, Patricia, of Lincoln; daughter, Dolores Tupper and her husband, Roger, of Naponee; nine grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; stepsisters-in-law, Ilene Stratman of Minden and Sophie Stratman of Holdrege; other relatives; and a host of friends.

She was baptized as an infant at a Lutheran church in Hildreth where she was also confirmed in 1929. She attended Smithfield Rural School District 56 in Franklin County and high school at Wilcox, where she graduated in 1934.

She and her husband were married at the Lutheran parsonage in Kimball. The family resided on farms in the Wilcox area before moving to Wilcox in 1973. She resided at Holdrege Memorial Homes from September 1999 until July 10, 2005, when she became a resident of Good Samaritan Society in Alma.

She had cooked at the Wilcox school for a number of years and was an Avon representative.

She enjoyed children, especially her grandchildren. She enjoyed sewing and embroidering.

She had been an active member of St. John's Lutheran Church at Wilcox, L.W.M.L., Ruth's Society and the Ladies Aid.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her father in 1917; her mother; son, Robert in 1968; stepfather, Ed Stratman; sisters, Frieda Johnson and her husband, Fred, and Helen Garrelts and her husband, Folkert; half brother, Harvey Stratman and his wife, Evelyn; half sister Rosie Nelson and her husband, Phillip; stepsister, Tina Schmidt and her husband, William; and stepbrothers, John Stratman and his wife, Ruth, Albert Stratman, Rudolph Stratman and Walter Stratman.

Memorials are suggested to St. John's Lutheran Church in Wilcox.
(Published in Kearney Hub from October 25 to October 26, 2008)