1/29/1917 – 11/2/2017
Doris Annette Anderson was born January 29, 1917 in Osceola, Nebraska, the first of five children to Carl Albin and Mabel Anderson. She grew up on a farm with her brothers Richard and Donald and sister Mary after another brother, Carl, died as an infant.
Her early years were spent on the farm, helping the family struggle through the Depression years. After graduation from Osceola High School, she taught school in a one-room, rural schoolhouse. She also worked for the local family physician and considered nursing as a career.
After battling phlebitis and an appendectomy, she moved to Omaha where she worked at Immanuel Hospital and Deaconess Home. There, she met her future husband, a tall, blue-eyed Swede from Stanton, Iowa, Martin Ellsworth Anderson, who was known to most as Andy. They were married on May 21, 1941 in the Immanuel Chapel.
When Andy’s service in the U.S. Army Air Corps in China and Burma, ended with World War II, they were reunited in Omaha and started their family, first with the birth of son Gary in 1946 and daughter Kathy in 1951. Four grand children and five great-grandchildren followed.
They spent most of their years in North Omaha, where they were longtime contributing members of Trinity Lutheran Church.
Doris returned to her Immanuel roots, working as a unit secretary and later as an EKG technician before retiring in the 1980s. In 1989, her medical training was put to practical use as she administered CPR and saved Andy’s life while en route to the hospital.
Her own health history was episodic, to say the least. Besides phlebitis and an appendectomy, she also had severe blood poisoning, a stroke that left her mostly paralyzed in 1993, a heart attack, pneumonia and pancreatitis. After the stroke, she taught herself to write with her left hand. But age eventually weakened those skills. She lived with her daughter, Kathy, for 17 years before moving to Montclair Nursing Home in 2010, at the age of 93. An avid player and frequent winner at Bingo, she spent over seven years at Montclair and celebrated her 100th birthday last January.
Doris is survived by her daughter, Kathy Anderson; son Gary Anderson and his wife, Wendy, in addition to their children, Ethan (Tracie) Anderson; Treya (Jay) Johnson; Alex (Gretchen Alms) Anderson and Noah Anderson, and great-grandchildren Ainsley and Beckett Anderson, Lily and Myles Johnson and Finlan Anderson.
Visitation 3:00 – 5:00 PM Sunday at Roeder Mortuary 2727 N. 108th Street Omaha, Nebraska; Funeral Service 11:00 AM Monday (11/6/2017) at Trinity Lutheran Church 6340 N. 30th Street Omaha, Nebraska,
Memorials can be made to Trinity Lutheran Church, Omaha
