Maude J. Cotton, 82, of Fremont, died Tuesday, April 27, 2010, at Nye Legacy in Fremont.

Funeral services are 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 30, at Salem Lutheran Church at Fontanelle. Interment will be in Fremont’s Memorial Cemetery.

Visitation began Thursday, but will also be held one hour prior to services at the church on Friday.

Maude J. Meier was born Feb. 3, 1928, in Ainsworth to Charles Eckert and Bertha (Reker) Eckert Brown. She was the only child of 16 who was born in a hospital.

She grew up in Fremont.

On July 22, 1944, she married Harland A. Meier in Fremont. The couple moved to the family dairy farm 10 miles northeast of Arlington, where they farmed and had a dairy business.. She was a teacher’s aide at Telbasta Elementary School for five years, where her children attended school.

Mr. Meier died in January 1974 and, on July 15, 1978, she married Wayne H. Cotton at Fontanelle. They continued to live on the farm until moving to Fremont in 2004. Her husband died in December of 2002.

Mrs. Cotton was a member of Salem Lutheran Church at Fontanelle and the church circle, and served as a former Sunday School teacher and church custodian.

She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Nancy K. Meier and Barbara and Jerry Carson, all of Fremont; Virginia and Jerry Nordboe of North Bend; Marilyn and Paul Mejstrik of Omaha; and Teresa Meier of Lincoln; son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Barb Meier of Arizona; 13 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; brother and sister-in-law, Harold and Mary Eckert of Grand Island.

In addition to her two husbands, she was preceded in death by five brothers and nine sisters.

Memorials are suggested to the Salem Lutheran Church building fund and the American Cancer Society.

Moser Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.