Margaret Mary Deaver

Mrs. Deaver died Saturday, May 1, 2004, at Cobblestone Court in Sabetha.

She was born Oct. 15, 1909, near Minco, Okla., the daughter of Charles Robert and Margaret Jane Mooney Dandliker. She moved with her family to Pocasset, Okla., six years later. The family moved to Nebraska in 1918, and she graduated from Honey Creek Union School near Salem, Neb., in 1928. She studied music in St. Joseph, Mo.

Mrs. Deaver worked with Dr. Sam Murdock and Dr. Fred E. Wrightman to care for newborn infants and their mothers and helped organize the Sabetha School of Nursing. She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sabetha, was past president of the Altar Society and had various offices in the Bluebird Extension Homemaker Unit of Brown County. She served on the Sabetha Pride Committee and regularly helped several charity organizations raise funds.

She and her husband were in the third generation of Deavers to farm near Sabetha. She served on the Farm Bureau Women’s Ensemble and was chosen as one of 10 state Farm Bureau Woman Leaders of the year in 1955. She and her husband together received the Balanced Farming and Family Living Award in 1956 and the Sabetha Chamber of Commerce Balanced Farming and Family Living Award at an annual banquet in 1985.

She married Ray Deaver on Feb. 19, 1935, in Sabetha. He died March 1, 2001.

Survivors include a son, Jim Deaver, Tucson, Ariz.; four daughters, Shirley Wenger and Valerie Deaver, both of Lawrence, Mary Maduska, Memphis, Tenn., and Joan Remmers, Platte City, Mo.; 13 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.

A parish rosary will be recited at 7 tonight at Popkess Mortuary Chapel in Sabetha, where family will receive friends after the rosary until 8:30 p.m.

The family suggests memorials to Cottonwood Inc., sent in care of the funeral home, 832 Virginia, Sabetha 66534.