MARTHA TIBBETTS, 95

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Services for Martha Tibbetts, 95 of Blair who died February 16, 1996 at Memorial Community Hospital in Blair were Monday, February 19 at Campbell-Aman Funeral Home in Blair. Burial was in Hillcrest Cemetery in Omaha.

Martha S. Tibbetts was born January 6, 1901 in Sundsvall, Sweden. At the age of two, in 1903, she emigrated to Omaha with her mother, Hilma Mattson Craig and aunts. She grew up in Omaha, living with her mother, three sisters and various aunts and uncles and speaking Swedish, but limited English.

In time, she became a sought-after telephone switchboard operator who could speak clear English. She had lived in Tekamah, but spent most of her life in either Omaha or Blair.

She had worked at the telephone company in Blair and for Kelly Ryan, as a switchboard operator. She was a past Noble Grand of the Rebekahs and a fifty-year member. She married George Tibbetts in 1955. They won numerous ballroom dancing trophies in waltz, polka and fox trot.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 1994 and by her sisters, Mae Holmes and Margaret “Birdie” Van Beek, who had lived in Blair until her death in 1985.

She is survived by two sons, Wayne Simpson of Lincoln and Jim of Blair; a daughter-in-law, Julie A. Simpson, Lincoln; three granddaughters, Jennifer, Lori and Kristen of Lincoln and one sister, Hilma “Dottie” Johnson of Omaha.