Shirley Ann Berkemier 1925 - 2000

BERKEMIER, WEIGERT, REITER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 11/3/2014 at 22:43:22

Sioux City Journal
26 December 2000

Shirley Ann Berkemier, 75, of Sioux City died Sunday, Dec. 24, 2000, at a Sioux City hospital following a lengthy illness.

Services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Sacred Heart Catholic Ch-urch with the Revs. Bruce Lawler and Robert Brown officiating. Entombment will be in Mount Calvary Mausoleum. Visitation will be 2 to 5 p.m. today at Christy-Smith Berkemier Funeral Home, and will resume at 6 p.m. at the church, with a parish vigil service at 7 p.m.

Mrs. Berkemier was born Oct. 25, 1925, in Pocahontas, Iowa, the daughter of Roy and Elsie (Weigert) Reiter. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy and St. Joseph's School of Nursing. She was active in nursing, including the polio unit during the 1950-1951 epidemic and was the first nurse in surgical recovery at St. Joseph Hospital. She worked in the first dialysis unit at St. Vincent hospital and worked as a private duty nurse for many years.

She married J. Kenneth Berkemier on Feb. 4, 1950, in Sioux City. She was active in the operation of Berkemier Funeral Home and Boulevard Flower Shop. She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church where she was a Eucharistic minister, choir member, lector and parish nurse. She served on the Diocesan School Board for several years. She was a parish representative to Interfaith Resource. She served on the Diocesan Peace and Justice Committee. She was the originator of the Sacred Heart Food Pantry and the Riverside Ladies Ecumenical Dinner Program. She also was a hospice volunteer.

Survivors include her husband; a son and his wife, Thomas and Bonnie Berkemier of McCook Lake; two daughters and their husbands, Mary and Paul Sadek, and Katie and Tony Kayser, all of Sioux Falls; two sisters, Jean and her husband, Roger Thomas of Sioux City, and Bernadine Price of Cincinnati; and nine grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by a brother, Bob, and two sisters, Betty Reiter and Catherine Christians.

Pallbearers will be Scott, Jeff and Todd Vlaanderen, Bruce Thomas, Charles Reiter, Dr. Mike Reiter, Ray LaFleur and Terry Schmidt.