Mrs. Mary A. Koehler, 88, Route 1, Tecumseh, Kansas, died Thursday, May 1, 1975, at a Topeka nursing home. She was born September 8, 1886, at Lecompton, Kansas, and had lived in Tecumseh most of her life. She was the daughter and oldest of ten children of George Andrew Anderson and Margaret "Maggie" Julia (Fawl) Anderson. A portrait of the family taken circa 1911 hangs in The Territorial Capital Museum at Lecompton. She and her sister Maggie attended Normal School for Teaching at Emporia, Kansas, from 1905-1906. She was employed by the Air Force Supply Depot in Topeka during World War II. She was a former member of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Big Springs, Kansas, and attended the St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Perry. She was a member of the Social Service Club in Tecumseh. She and Frank Gibson Koehler were married October 26, 1910, and raised four children and farmed in the Tecumseh area. He died December 17, 1948. Survivors include two sons, Matthew Clarence Koehler, 4530 W. 21st, and William Hugh Koehler, Route 1, Berryton; two daughters, Mrs. Cecilia Esther Marsolais, 3325 Fremont, and Mrs. Georgia Frances Donahue, 2731 Massachusetts; four brothers, Tom Anderson and Paul Anderson, both of Tecumseh, Bill Anderson, 3603 N.W. Topeka, and Harry Anderson, 635 N.W. 35th; a sister, Mrs. Rose Pennock, Lawrence; 14 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Services are pending at Brennan Funeral Home. Burial will be in St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery in Big Springs.

Note: Mary Anderson had no middle name although some family trees will be found with "Esther" as a middle name. I specifically remember my grandmother (Mary Anderson) and mother (Cecilia Marsolais) and aunt (Frances Donahue) discussing this one day and her verifying that she had no middle name. It is interesting to note that she was named Mary and was born on the day the Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Virgin Mary; nine months after the Immaculate Conception. - TMW