Gherke, Peggy Jane O'Neal

GHERKE, FISHER, CONNLY, ONEAL

Posted By: Bill Rathbun (email)
Date: 9/2/2003 at 18:44:16

August 28, 2003

Peggy Jane O'Neal Gherke, 63, of Peoria, Ariz., died Monday, Aug. 25, 2003, at her home in Peoria.

A service in Peoria was held Wednesday at Heritage Funeral Home. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at First Lutheran Church of Albert Lea, Minn., with the Rev. Dan Baker officiating. Interment will be in Graceland Cemetery in Albert Lea. A wake will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at the church.

Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. Friday at Bonnerup Funeral Service Chapel in Albert Lea and one hour prior to the funeral at the church.

Mrs. Gherke was born May 28, 1940, in Albert Lea, the daughter of Leo E. and Bernice Gilbertson ONeal. She married Frank Fisher in May 1959. They divorced in 1972. He died in 1988. She married Roger Gherke Feb. 19, 2000.

Mrs. Gherke was baptized and confirmed at First Lutheran Church in Albert Lea. She attended elementary school in Faribault, Minn., and graduated from high school in 1958 from Albert Lea. She went on to complete her medical technology degree in Minneapolis, Minn., and then attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.

She was employed as a dental assistant in Fairfield for many years and then as an oral surgery assistant with the Veterans Administration hospital in Minneapolis. Until her death, she had been working as an oral surgery assistant and office manager at Arizona Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Ltd., in Sun City, Ariz.

Survivors include her parents of Burnsville, Minn.; her husband of Peoria; two sons, Michael Fisher of Fairfield and Bradley Fisher of Peoria; one granddaughter; one sister, Beverly Connly of Burnsville; and three brothers Michael O'Neal of Cherokee, Craig O'Neal of Eden Prairie, Minn., and Brian O'Neal of Nevada.

Mrs. Gherke was preceded in death by her grandparents.

Courtesy of Fairfield Daily Ledger Inc.