Meleva Ponich Sachen

A memorial Mass for Meleva Ponich Sachen, 83, Lawrence, will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Corpus Christi Catholic Church. She donated her body to Kansas University Medical Center for medical research and education.Mrs. Sachen died Monday, Oct. 2, 2006, in Lawrence.She was born Feb. 2, 1923, in Kansas City, Kan., the daughter of Nicholas and Mary Pocuca Ponich. She graduated from Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kan.Mrs. Sachen was a homemaker and a switchboard operator at the Wyandotte County Courthouse. She married Joseph P. Sachen on July 29, 1950, in Kansas City, Kan. He died in 1997.Survivors include three daughters, Kathy Gute and husband Bill, Alexandria, Va., Sandra Medved, Merriam, and Stephanie Lawhorn and husband David, Lawrence; a son, Steven Sachen, Kansas City, Mo.; a sister, Luba Shutt, Kansas City, Kan.; and five grandchildren, Nicholas and Thomas Medved, Susan and Christopher Lawhorn, and Lauren Sachen.The family suggests memorials to Hospice Care in Douglas County , 200 Maine, third floor, Lawrence 66044, or the Muriel I. Kauffman Women’s Heart Center, St. Luke’s Hospital Foundation, 4225 Baltimore, Kansas City, MO 64111.