Bernice Josephine (Treiber) Warnke- 1915-2010

WARNKE, TREIBER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/22/2013 at 10:06:46

Danbury Review
14 July 2010

ALAMEDA, CA - Bernice Josephine (Treiber) Warnke, 94, was born on December 9, 1915, to John and Josie Treiber in their farmhouse near Danbury, Iowa. Berny had three older sisters, Minnie, Vi, and Babe, who all predeceased her.

She died peacefully, with her family by her side, in Alameda, California, on June 28, 2010, of complications following a stroke.

Berny had a happy childhood on the farm. She vividly described her day-to-day life in memorable Christmas letters, pure Currier & Ives, with winter sleigh rides to school and Maypole dances in the spring. After graduation from Danbury High School in 1934, Berny earned a degree in nursing from Creighton St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1938 she met John Warnke at a party, where he asked someone about the pretty girl in the brown hat. They married in 1940 and had two daughters, Judy and Nancy. John was disabled by wounds suffered in the service in World War II, and Berny was his caregiver until his death in 1972.

The family moved a number of times, living in Ida Grove from 1955 to 1962, and then settling in Palo Alto, California, where Berny worked as a Registered Nurse at the Veterans Administration Hospital until she retired in 1979. She moved to Alameda in 1990, after the birth of her granddaughter, Maggie.

Berny had a wonderful sense of humor and knew how to enjoy the little things in life. She loved to travel, starting with a cross-country train trip to visit her sister Babe and Babe's husband Curls in glamorous 1930's Los Angeles.

She also particularly liked seeing the towns in Germany from which her ancestors emigrated. She was an excellent cook and baker, and many remember her frosted sugar cookies baked with her grandmother's recipe. She enjoyed painting, and she created her own Christmas cards. To the delight of her family, she also wrote many accounts of her Iowa childhood and youth, as well as extending a family history begun by her sister Vi. She was a loyal San Francisco Giants fan, and she embroidered many a pillowcase and hand towel while she watched them on TV. She loved gardening, her cat, her hummingbirds, and especially her two grandchildren.

Berny will be missed by her daughter Nancy Lewis and son-in-law Jim Lewis, of Alameda, California; her daughter Judy Knutson, of Seattle, Washington; her grandchildren, Ken Knutson, of Olympia, Washington, and Maggie Lewis of Alameda, California; and by dozens of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, California, Oregon, and elsewhere.

Family and friends are invited to attend Memorial Services July 16, at 11:00 a.m., at The First Presbyterian Church, 2100 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda with Pastor Jack Buckley, Officiating. Private interment at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Palo Alto.

For further information please call Harry W. Greer, Funeral Director FDR-745, Santos-Robinson Mortuary FD-181, San Leandro, CA 510-483-0123 www.santos¬robinson.com.