She was the daughter of Robert Perry Jack and Amanda Dardine Campbell. She had a very rough childhood, as her parents moved between Iowa and Kansas and as far as Texas, trying to get established after many hardships. Her parents lost five children at a very young age before Grace was born. Grace lost her mother when she was only 14, and she became responsibile for the household and taking care of her father.
Grace married Anton Raymond Koehler on January 19, 1916, a month after her 18th birthday. They lost their first child, a stillborn son named Ralph that same year. They lost their second child, Elmo, at age 26, on June 17, 1944, during the invasion of Normandy during World War II. My grandparents took that very hard.
Anton and Grace engaged in farming in Wayne, Doniphan Co., Kansas, for a number of years, before moving their family to the City of Atchison, Kansas. Grace was a homemaker most of her life, although she did work some time for a department store downtown. She helped Anton sell produce from their gardens, and she canned quite a bit of it to supplement the family groceries. She also took in and cared for elderly ladies for additional income. She and her husband usually had a dog for a companion, and usually a chihuahua. One I remember they had named Blondie for his golden color. Grace also had canaries for years. When we would go to visit, they would be sitting by her kitchen window just singing away. She always had an old fashioned coffee percolator sitting on her gas stove and I loved the smell and the sound of the bubbling, and loved watching the coffee striking the glass globe on top.
Grandmother was a fairly heavy smoker and preferred menthol Cool or Salem cigarettes. They rarely had the television or music on in the house. She liked to watch Lawrence Welk on Sundays and my grandfather sometimes would be listening to baseball on the radio when we were visiting. She did some needle crafting like sewing quilts, embroidering, and crochet. Although I was fairly young, I got a sense that there were very few joys in her life.
She lost her husband March 4, 1963. She started having some mental health issues or a breakdown after this and wound up for a time in the hospital for treatment. I think it was her living alone that was getting to her. She came to live with us in Leavenworth for a short time around 1966 or so. She had some health issues and couldn't live alone anymore. She couldn't climb the stairs of the house, so we turned over our living room to her as a bedroom, and used our dining room as our living room. She wasn't happy living with us and it made the household very difficult. Someone found a woman back in Atchison, a Mrs. Parrott, that took in boarders, so Grandmother went to stay with her for the last few years before her death. She died at age 70 of pneumonia while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
She was survived by her children, Mary Louise Smith and husband Willard; Jacob R. Koehler and wife Aida; Emma Jeanne Hamblin and husband Dan; and Kenneth G. Koehler and wife Beatrice; 15 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
Grace married Anton Raymond Koehler on January 19, 1916, a month after her 18th birthday. They lost their first child, a stillborn son named Ralph that same year. They lost their second child, Elmo, at age 26, on June 17, 1944, during the invasion of Normandy during World War II. My grandparents took that very hard.
Anton and Grace engaged in farming in Wayne, Doniphan Co., Kansas, for a number of years, before moving their family to the City of Atchison, Kansas. Grace was a homemaker most of her life, although she did work some time for a department store downtown. She helped Anton sell produce from their gardens, and she canned quite a bit of it to supplement the family groceries. She also took in and cared for elderly ladies for additional income. She and her husband usually had a dog for a companion, and usually a chihuahua. One I remember they had named Blondie for his golden color. Grace also had canaries for years. When we would go to visit, they would be sitting by her kitchen window just singing away. She always had an old fashioned coffee percolator sitting on her gas stove and I loved the smell and the sound of the bubbling, and loved watching the coffee striking the glass globe on top.
Grandmother was a fairly heavy smoker and preferred menthol Cool or Salem cigarettes. They rarely had the television or music on in the house. She liked to watch Lawrence Welk on Sundays and my grandfather sometimes would be listening to baseball on the radio when we were visiting. She did some needle crafting like sewing quilts, embroidering, and crochet. Although I was fairly young, I got a sense that there were very few joys in her life.
She lost her husband March 4, 1963. She started having some mental health issues or a breakdown after this and wound up for a time in the hospital for treatment. I think it was her living alone that was getting to her. She came to live with us in Leavenworth for a short time around 1966 or so. She had some health issues and couldn't live alone anymore. She couldn't climb the stairs of the house, so we turned over our living room to her as a bedroom, and used our dining room as our living room. She wasn't happy living with us and it made the household very difficult. Someone found a woman back in Atchison, a Mrs. Parrott, that took in boarders, so Grandmother went to stay with her for the last few years before her death. She died at age 70 of pneumonia while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
She was survived by her children, Mary Louise Smith and husband Willard; Jacob R. Koehler and wife Aida; Emma Jeanne Hamblin and husband Dan; and Kenneth G. Koehler and wife Beatrice; 15 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
She was the daughter of Robert Perry Jack and Amanda Dardine Campbell. She had a very rough childhood, as her parents moved between Iowa and Kansas and as far as Texas, trying to get established after many hardships. Her parents lost five children at a very young age before Grace was born. Grace lost her mother when she was only 14, and she became responsibile for the household and taking care of her father.
Grace married Anton Raymond Koehler on January 19, 1916, a month after her 18th birthday. They lost their first child, a stillborn son named Ralph that same year. They lost their second child, Elmo, at age 26, on June 17, 1944, during the invasion of Normandy during World War II. My grandparents took that very hard.
Anton and Grace engaged in farming in Wayne, Doniphan Co., Kansas, for a number of years, before moving their family to the City of Atchison, Kansas. Grace was a homemaker most of her life, although she did work some time for a department store downtown. She helped Anton sell produce from their gardens, and she canned quite a bit of it to supplement the family groceries. She also took in and cared for elderly ladies for additional income. She and her husband usually had a dog for a companion, and usually a chihuahua. One I remember they had named Blondie for his golden color. Grace also had canaries for years. When we would go to visit, they would be sitting by her kitchen window just singing away. She always had an old fashioned coffee percolator sitting on her gas stove and I loved the smell and the sound of the bubbling, and loved watching the coffee striking the glass globe on top.
Grandmother was a fairly heavy smoker and preferred menthol Cool or Salem cigarettes. They rarely had the television or music on in the house. She liked to watch Lawrence Welk on Sundays and my grandfather sometimes would be listening to baseball on the radio when we were visiting. She did some needle crafting like sewing quilts, embroidering, and crochet. Although I was fairly young, I got a sense that there were very few joys in her life.
She lost her husband March 4, 1963. She started having some mental health issues or a breakdown after this and wound up for a time in the hospital for treatment. I think it was her living alone that was getting to her. She came to live with us in Leavenworth for a short time around 1966 or so. She had some health issues and couldn't live alone anymore. She couldn't climb the stairs of the house, so we turned over our living room to her as a bedroom, and used our dining room as our living room. She wasn't happy living with us and it made the household very difficult. Someone found a woman back in Atchison, a Mrs. Parrott, that took in boarders, so Grandmother went to stay with her for the last few years before her death. She died at age 70 of pneumonia while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
She was survived by her children, Mary Louise Smith and husband Willard; Jacob R. Koehler and wife Aida; Emma Jeanne Hamblin and husband Dan; and Kenneth G. Koehler and wife Beatrice; 15 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
Grace married Anton Raymond Koehler on January 19, 1916, a month after her 18th birthday. They lost their first child, a stillborn son named Ralph that same year. They lost their second child, Elmo, at age 26, on June 17, 1944, during the invasion of Normandy during World War II. My grandparents took that very hard.
Anton and Grace engaged in farming in Wayne, Doniphan Co., Kansas, for a number of years, before moving their family to the City of Atchison, Kansas. Grace was a homemaker most of her life, although she did work some time for a department store downtown. She helped Anton sell produce from their gardens, and she canned quite a bit of it to supplement the family groceries. She also took in and cared for elderly ladies for additional income. She and her husband usually had a dog for a companion, and usually a chihuahua. One I remember they had named Blondie for his golden color. Grace also had canaries for years. When we would go to visit, they would be sitting by her kitchen window just singing away. She always had an old fashioned coffee percolator sitting on her gas stove and I loved the smell and the sound of the bubbling, and loved watching the coffee striking the glass globe on top.
Grandmother was a fairly heavy smoker and preferred menthol Cool or Salem cigarettes. They rarely had the television or music on in the house. She liked to watch Lawrence Welk on Sundays and my grandfather sometimes would be listening to baseball on the radio when we were visiting. She did some needle crafting like sewing quilts, embroidering, and crochet. Although I was fairly young, I got a sense that there were very few joys in her life.
She lost her husband March 4, 1963. She started having some mental health issues or a breakdown after this and wound up for a time in the hospital for treatment. I think it was her living alone that was getting to her. She came to live with us in Leavenworth for a short time around 1966 or so. She had some health issues and couldn't live alone anymore. She couldn't climb the stairs of the house, so we turned over our living room to her as a bedroom, and used our dining room as our living room. She wasn't happy living with us and it made the household very difficult. Someone found a woman back in Atchison, a Mrs. Parrott, that took in boarders, so Grandmother went to stay with her for the last few years before her death. She died at age 70 of pneumonia while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
She was survived by her children, Mary Louise Smith and husband Willard; Jacob R. Koehler and wife Aida; Emma Jeanne Hamblin and husband Dan; and Kenneth G. Koehler and wife Beatrice; 15 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
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