(photo) Odella “Norma” Bilau, 91

Odella “Norma” Bilau, 91, of Blair, formerly of Norfolk, died peacefully on Friday, June 13, 2014, at Memorial Community Hospital in Blair.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Norfolk. Interment will be in the Rosehill Cemetery at rural McLean. Visitation will be 4-8 p.m. Monday at the Stonacek Funeral Chapel in Norfolk.

Odella “Norma” Hanson was born Jan. 22, 1923, near Rake, Iowa, to Nels T. and Olga (Erdahl) Hanson. After high school, she went to work in Omaha where she met her husband, Arthur Gustav Bilau. They were married Aug. 12, 1944, in Omaha and moved to a farm near Osmond where they farmed and raised six children.

The Bilaus were members of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Randolph. After her husband died in 1990, Mrs. Bilau moved to an apartment in Norfolk and joined Christ the Servant Lutheran Church. In 2012, she moved to Carter Place in Blair.

She was a devoted wife and mother. When she lived on the farm, she kept busy with farm chores, church functions, gardening, canning, sewing and helping at the school cafeteria.

After she moved to the apartment in Norfolk, she kept busy by reading, sewing and doing numerous crafts. She will be remembered for the many quilts that she made for family and friends.

She is survived by her sons: Jim Bilau of Spring Lake, N.C., Allen Bilau and wife Ruth of Blair, Leon Bilau and wife Bette of Gretna and Paul Bilau and wife Jane of Lincoln; daughter Kathy Urbina and husband Phil of Carlsbad, Calif.; eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren: Chris Bilau and wife Betsy of Blair, with Casey and Lainey; Joe Bilau and wife Kelly of Kalispell, Mont., with Luke, Owen and Lizzy; Tammy Larson and husband Devin of Fort Leavenworth, Kan., with Ashley, Ally, Magdalena and Victoria; Stacy Settgast and husband Sean of Fort Gordon, Ga., with Austin and Wynter; Heather Barry and husband Pat of Omaha, with Tanner, Aubrey and Chaeli; Tony Bilau of Omaha; and Elizabeth and Ross Urbina of Carlsbad, Calif.; and brothers: Tilmer Hanson of Owatonna, Minn., and Marlyn Hanson of Buffalo Center, Iowa.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Nels T. and Olga Hanson; sister Hannah Toquam; husband Arthur Bilau and daughter JoAnn Glandt.

www.stonacekfuneralchapel.com.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~