Oskar E. Klein 1911- 2004

KLEIN, PANSEGRAU, MALONEY

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 5/19/2013 at 22:12:35

Sioux City Journal
16 April 2004

LAWTON, Iowa -- Oskar E. Klein, 92, of Lawton died Wednesday, April 14, 2004, at Sunrise Retirement Community in Sioux City.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Bethel Lutheran Church in Lawton. Burial will be in Banner Township Cemetery, Lawton. Visitation will be 3 to 8 p.m. Friday, with the family present 5 to 7:30 p.m., at Christy-Smith Morningside Chapel.

Mr. Klein was born May 11, 1911, near Stillwater, Okla., the son of Ewald and Amanda (Pansegrau) Klein. The family moved to Northeast Nebraska when Oskar was a small child. Oskar attended rural schools near Martinsburg, Neb., and high school in Ponca, Neb. As a young man he helped his father farm.

He married Dorothy Maloney in May of 1935. He farmed her home place north of Sioux City. Dorothy died in march of 1944.

Oskar moved to the Lawton area in the summer of 1945 and began working for J.W. Bier Construction as a carpenter. He had learned much about building from his grandfather, Christian Pansegrau. He married Carmen Empen in June of 1946 at the home of her parents, Carl and Johanne Empen.

By 1950 he had established his own crew and began Klein Construction. Thus began a long career of building houses strong enough to withstand many generations of family living. He loved his work.

Oskar served as Lawton's mayor for eight years in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was a member of the Bethel Lutheran Church of Lawton since 1946. He served in many offices of the congregation. He was a former member of Lawton Volunteer Fire Department, the Lawton Community Club and the Friendship Center of Lawton. He loved gardening and was happy when he could provide vegetables to neighbors and friends. He retired in 1981 when macular degeneration destroyed his sight. Oskar moved to Sunrise Retirement Community in April of 2000.

Survivors include his wife Carmen; two sons, Carl and his wife Deborah of Omaha, Neb. and Eric and his wife Dawn of Lawton; four grandchildren, Christi of Omaha, Heather of Sioux City, Nathan in the U.S. Navy and Heidi of Coffeeville, Kan.; four great-grandchildren; one brother Kurt and h is wife Agnes of Ocala, Fla.; one sister-in-law Velma Klein of Aurora, Colo., and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his parents-in-law; two brothers, Reinhard and his wife Esther and Erhard; four sisters, Frieda Klein, Emma Deichmann and her husband Walter, Bertha Welty and her husband Emerson, Johanna Ackermann and a nephew Paul Deichmann.