Verneda Odessa Appel Kahler

Mrs. Kahler died Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004, at her home.

She was born April 14, 1916, in Otis, the daughter of Henry and Martha (Hinkel) Appel. She lived in a number of small Kansas towns in her childhood. She graduated from Mantor High School in 1935 and received a lifetime teaching certificate from Hays College in 1939.

She lived in Weber, Belleville, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Mo., Prairie Village and the Harrisburg, Pa., area before moving to Ottawa in 1995.

Mrs. Kahler taught in a one-room schoolhouse near Bison for a year, beginning in 1940. In 1959 she taught for a year at Kansas City Christian School and was a substitute teacher for several more years. From 1965 to 1967 she was a special assistant at a school for missionary children in Rubio, Venezuela. She was a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Ottawa.

She married Roland L. Kahler on June 2, 1940, in La Crosse. He survives, of the home.

Other survivors include three daughters, Anita Cobb, Ottawa, Carolyn Knoernschild, Sedalia, Mo., and Donna Stirn, Tescott; a son, Brad Kahler, Ottawa; a sister, Darlene Ellings, Hays; 21 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.

A son, Edward Paul Kahler, died earlier.

The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Calvary Baptist Church.

The family suggests memorials to the church, sent in care of Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, P.O. Box 14, Ottawa 66067.