Katheryn Nelson

Katheryn Nelson, 93 of Potter, Nebraska went to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ o Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at Sidney Regional Medical Center, Extended Care.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 A.M., Monday, October 5, 2015 in the Prairie West ELCA/UMC Church in Potter with Pastor Betsy Galloway-Carew officiating. Burial will follow in the Potter Cemetery.

Visitation will be held from 2:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. Sunday at the Holechek Funeral Home in Sidney with the family present from 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Prairie West Church, The Potter Rescue Unit, and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

You can view the online obituary and share condolences with the family at www.holechekfuneralhomes.com

Katheryn Moore (Hagemeister) Nelson was born to Chas. Heinrich Hagemeister and Mabel Grace (Moore) Hagemeister on January 28, 1922. She was born in the home of her maternal grandparents, Samuel Henry Moore and Anna Katherine Moore of Aurora, Nebraska. Katheryn and her family resided on a farm in Ovid, Colorado up until four years of age when they relocated to Potter, Nebraska.

Katheryn attended public school in Potter, entering First Grade at the age of five in September 1927. She joined the Potter Methodist Church at age 12 in 1934 and graduated from Potter High School in 1939.

Katheryn studied a post-graduate course in Latin from 1939 to 1940. In the school-year of 1940 - 1941, she attended Nebraska State Teachers College in Kearney, Nebraska (now the University of Nebraska – Kearney). There, she obtained her teaching degree for General Elementary Education for Kindergarten through Eighth Grade, completing the course in one year at the age of 19.

In the fall of 1941, Katheryn taught school at the Second District of Cheyenne County for one year in a one-room schoolhouse (near Huntsman dist.), Northwest of Sidney. Her student body consisted of three children in three grades. During her tenure there, she boarded with the Harold Spiker family who lived near the school. Mr. Spiker, Superintendent, drove Katheryn to and from the schoolhouse each day as she did not have a car.

In the fall of 1942, Katheryn took employment at the Potter State Bank of Potter where she served as a Teller and Bookkeeper. She remained with the bank for five and one-half years. It was here that she met her future husband.

She was married to Virgil Alvin Nelson, son of Vernon Anker and Mary Sophia (Larson) Nelson of Potter on February 8, 1948, in the home of her sister, Emily and Theodore Carlson, who farmed north of Potter.

Katheryn and Virgil resided on a family farm located seven miles Northeast of Potter where they raised their four children. She loved to garden and especially loved the birds that migrated through. She resided there until 2004 when she took up residence in the Sidney Regional Extended Care facility in Sidney, Nebraska. The staff and friends there will remember her for her beautiful humming of hymns and songs while there.

Katheryn was an active member of the Potter United Methodist Church for 81 years. She taught Pre-school and Elementary children’s Sunday School for many of those years. She was also very active in the United Methodist Women, Royal Neighbors of America, American Legion Auxiliary Post 291, The Order of the Eastern Star, the Nebraska Wheat Growers Association, the Nebraska Wheat Hearts, and the Social Neighbors’ Club. She also served as Secretary for the Cloud Dusters flying club and kept books for the Potter Cemetery Board. Katheryn loved bird-watching, flower and vegetable gardening, classical music, singing, and playing the piano.


Katheryn is survived by four children; Vern A. Nelson and wife Peggy of Potter, NE, Mary Ann Nelson Street and husband William M. Street Jr. of Midlothian, VA, Val R. Nelson of Omaha, NE, and David L. Nelson and wife Martha of Lincoln, NE; six grandchildren, and seven great-grand children. She is also survived by one sister, Mrs. Charlyn (Bennie) Herboldsheimer of Auburn, NE, two sister-in-laws, Mrs. Kermit (Marjorie) Nelson of Dalton, NE, and Mrs. Deloras Shanholtz of Plattsmouth, NE, and many beloved nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband of 64 years, Virgil, and one sister, Emily Carlson. 

 Holechek Funeral Home and Cremations in Sidney is serving the Nelson family.