Arvilla Kirch, 91

Arvilla Kirch, 91, of Wisner, died Thursday, May 4, 2006, at the Wisner Care Center.

Funeral services will be 1:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wisner. Interment will be in St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery in rural Beemer.

Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 10, at Kuzelka-Minnick Funeral Home in Wisner, with the family receiving friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Visitation will also be held beginning at 11 a.m. Thursday at the church.

Arvilla (Legband) Kirch was born Aug. 25, 1914, on a farm near Snyder to Arthur and Lena (Borgelt) Legband. She was the eldest of 14 children.

She was baptized and confirmed at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church at Snyder. She attended 1st through 6th grades at the rural county school near Snyder. She attended 7th and 8th grades at St. Peter’s parochial school in Snyder, where she was a member of the St. Peter’s choir, and graduated from Snyder High School in 1933. She played saxophone in high school and continued playing in the community band.

After graduation, she remained at home with her parents where she helped with her siblings.

On Jan. 1, 1940, she married Herbert Kirch at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. The couple farmed south of Wisner for many years, before moving into Wisner in 1980. Mrs. Kirch moved to the Wisner Care Center in 2001.

Mrs. Kirch was a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, St. Paul’s D.O.R., and Fellowship Club. She was a former member of Zion St. John Lutheran Church in rural Wisner. She loved singing church hymns glorifying God. She loved being a farmer’s wife and mother, her garden, and visiting with people.

She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Richard and Janet Kirch of Fremont, Gary and Virginia Kirch of Blair, and Stanley and Elaine Kirch of Wisner; daughters and sons-in-law, Sharon and Eugene Schroeder of Buhl, Idaho, and Pamela and William Fuller of Kersey, Colo.; 11 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; brothers and sisters-in-law, Wilbur and Aina Legband of Fremont, Willis and Delene Legband of Valparaiso, Allen and Marjorie Legband of Scribner, and Darrell and Loretta Legband of Durant, Okla.; sisters and brother-in-law, Althea and Kenneth Beck of Dodge, Ardyce Danes of Scribner, and Marilyn Hansen of Ames; sister-in-law, Sandy Legband of Scribner.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Herbert, in 1992, two sisters, Verna and Arlene, and four brothers, Arnold, Delbert, Harold, and Kennard.

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