MARY GERHARDT WEST
(nee MARY STELLA COFFMAN)
DOB: February 27, 1896
Lacon, IL USA
DOD: July 25, 1989
Anitgo, WI USA
Daughter of James Plummer Coffman and Ella Priscilla (nee Gray) Coffman
Sister to: Emma Olive (Gardner R. Williams), John David (Lizie Ledbetter), James Plummer (Henrietta Beck), Ethal, Elsie, William Gray, Teresa (Marion H. Bennett) and Grace E. (unknown Shafer) Coffman
Wife of William Paul Gerhardt, married Aug. 28, 1918 in Chicago, IL (age 22).
No children were born to this union.
After William Gerhardt’s death in 1954, Mary was married to Roy Foster West on December 16, 1961 (age 58), which is why her name is listed as Mary Gerhardt West.
MARY GERHARDT WEST
Former Beecher resident Mary Gerhardt West, 93, died July 25, 1989, at Eastview Manor nursing home in Antigo, Wisc.
Mrs. West was born Feb. 27, 1896, in Lacon, IL to James and Ella Coffman.
A graduate of Illinois State University, she was formerly a school teacher in the Beecher area. She was a member of the Beecher PTA, Women’s Welfare Club, Hazel Chapter 390, Order of Eastern Star, and the Beecher Community Church.
Mrs. West is survived by a stepdaughter, Norma Jean (West) Wentland of Fence, Wisc. and a sister Grace Shafer of Lacon.
Her husband Paul Gerhardt, was a longtime superintendent of schools in Beecher. He died July 18, 1954. Her second husband Roy Foster West, died August 13, 1971. She was also preceded in death by four sisters and four brothers.
Services were conducted by Rev. Bill Beagle Saturday at the Hack Funeral Home. Entombment was in the Beecher Mausoleum.
The star on Mary’s headstone is the “Eastern Star”
(Editor’s note: What Mary’s obit does not tell us is that before William Paul’s death, Mary and Paul vacationed at a resort in Summitt Lake, Wisconsin. Mary continued to go back to Summitt Lake after William Paul’s death. Mary met and married her second husband, Roy Foster West, at Summit Lake. Roy West also died at Summitt Lake, WI and is buried next to his first wife, Frances Stevens West, in Delavan, Wisconsin, in Spring Grove Cemetery)
Mary’s family members also resting in the mausoleum are:
Husband: William Paul Gerhardt
Dunlap, Rose W. age 89, of Lansing, Illinois, passed away Friday October 4, 1985 at Community Hospital, Munster. Survivors; one daughter, Rose (Carl) Morgenthaler of Freemont, California; granddaughter, Sheri (Thomas) Cobble of Long Beach, California; and three great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Dunlap was a charter member of Arcadia Chapter order of the Eastern Star #697 of Lansing which will hold services Monday evening at the funeral home.
Beecher and community was shocked Monday morning, when the news of the sudden death of Mrs. Henry Hack, who had passed away at midnight, was circulated. It was generally known that Mrs. Hack had been ill for the past two years, but even members of her home circle were not aware that the call of the supreme maker was so near. She had been feeling in her usual health all day and even up to the time of retiring for the night.
which is now known under the name of Hack’s hotel, has a splendid reputation both far and wide, this reputation being mostly due to the motherly, friendly ways of Mrs. Hack, who possessed the rare gift of making everybody feel at home who stepped under her roof. Ill for some years, her condition gradually grew worse. But even then she could not see her way clear of laying down the work which had become a second nature to her. Thus, although still attending church in the morning, and seemingly as well as could be expected, the great call came to her, as she often expressed it would in full pursuance of the work for which she was so well fitted. Fifteen minutes past twelve, on Monday morning she closed her weary eyes, having reached the age of 69 years, 3 months and 20 days.
The surviving and deeply mourning relatives are the husband, the two sons, Dr. Edmund Hack of Hammond, Ind., and Albert of Beecher; two sisters, Anna (Mrs. Fred Bielfeldt) of Mount Vernon, S.D., and Minnie (Mrs. Myron Tillotson) of Beecher, two grandchildren, as also a large host of other relatives and friends.