Esther Anna (Pieper) LAGER

LAGER, PIEPER, KOEHLER, DURHAM, SPITLER, WOLFE, GLAS, SCHMIDTKE, FLETCHER, GOURLEY, ZEIGER, COMAN, STARK, MILLER, FISHER, KETCHUM, JUST, BROOKS, MCGILL, ARNDORFER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/2/2007 at 09:51:17

Mason City Globe Gazette
04/22/1997

Esther Anna Lager, 90, of Belmond, died Saturday (April 19, 1997) at the Belmond Health Care Center. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, with Father Jack Paisley, Father Wayne Droessler and Father Robert Ament officiating. Interment will be in St. John's Cemetery, Clarion. Visitation will be held from 2 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Tenold Funeral Home, with a 2:30 p.m. parish rosary and a 7:30 p.m. wake service. There will be further visitation one hour prior to services on Thursday at the church.

Esther Anna (Pieper) Lager, the daughter of Henry Francis and Sarah Elizabeth (Koehler) Pieper, was born Aug. 2, 1906, in Hanover, Kan. She attended St. Joseph's Academy in Akron, Colo., and was united in marriage to John Odilo Lager on Nov. 21, 1933, at Akron, Colo. They farmed at Mitchell and Minatare, Neb. In 1948, they moved to Rowan and retired to Clarion in 1967. After the death of her husband, she moved to the Belmond Community Apartments and to the Belmond Health Care Center. Esther was a member of St. John's Church in Clarion, where she was active in the Altar Society and was the church Sacristan. She became a member of St. Francis Xavier Church upon moving to Belmond. Her life was devoted to her family, her church and the farm. She enjoyed playing the piano, crocheting and other handiwork.

Surviving is a son, John Lager Jr. and his wife, Shirley, of Clarion; daughters, Jean Durham and her husband, Sid, of Lake Forest, Calif.; Mary Ann Spitler and her husband, Jack, of Belmond; Janice Wolfe and her husband, Don, of Venice, Fla., and Elaine "Sam" Brooks and her husband, Rich, of Belmond; grandchildren, Melody Glas, Margaret Schmidtke, Mary Fletcher, Maurita Gourley, Milissa Zeiger, Marcella Lager, Theresa Coman, Monica Stark, Cecilia Miller, Timothy Durham, Michael Durham, Patricia Fisher, Marcia Ketchum, Joe Spitler, Paul Spitler, Ann Just, Rick Brooks, David Brooks and Sarah McGill; 28 great-grandchildren; five stepgreat-grandchildren; and a sister, Ellen Arndorfer of Eagle Grove. Preceding her in death are her parents; husband, John; six great-grandchildren; one sister; and four brothers.