MR. AND MRS. OTTO CUNNINGHAM BURIED AT KENNARD MON.

Mr. and Mrs Otto Cunningham Buried Monday, April 27

An unusually sad occasion was the double funeral Monday afternoon at the Kennard Methodist church of Mr. and Mrs. Otto A. Cunningham, death having claimed them both within two days. Mr. Cunningham died at Nicholas Senn hospital in Omaha at 1:15 Friday morning of pneumonia, following an attack of flu induced by over work and worry for the past three months his wife had been ill with cancer.

He was compelled to go to bed Wednesday, April 15th, when it was found he had a temperature of 103. On the following Sunday he was so bad he was taken to Omaha and placed under an oxygen tent, but he had no resistance and death came early Friday morning.

Mrs. Cunningham had been ill for some three months, and had an operation in Omaha about six weeks ago. When it was found the trouble was malignant, she was brought home to the farm two miles west of Kennard where she slowly grew weaker and passed away at 9 o’clock last Sunday morning. Her condition was so serious that the body of her husband had been held for a double funeral, which occurred Monday afternoon, conducted by Rev. E. P. Booher, pastor of the Kennard Methodist church. Burial was in the Kennard cemetery.

Otto Elmon Cunningham was born January 4th, 1876 so was past 60 years of age. He was united in marriage to Miss Lillie Van Deusen December 19, 1899, and made their home on the farm for over 37 years. He was a successful farmer and they had built up a very fine farm home.

He is survived by two sisters, Maime, Mrs. J. A. Stewart of Charleston, Nebr., and Mrs. Jens Jensen of near Blair. Also two brothers, Charles of Arlington and Frank of this city.

Two children were born to them, a daughter dying in infancy and Glen, aged 31, who lives at Rodeo, Calif. He and his wife arrived Saturday morning, just a day before his mother died.

Lillie Van Deusen was born in this city March 3rd, 1873, so was just past 63 years of age. She is survived by one sister, Bessie, a member of the faculty of Nebraska Central college at Central City, Nebr., and two brothers, Frank Van Deusen of Kennard and Charles H. Van Deusen of St. Petersburg, Fla., where he has made his home since he retired from the office of chief of police in Omaha.

All of the immediate relatives of both families were present at the funeral service. Miss Bessie Van Deusen has been here some two weeks helping the day and night nurse care for her sister.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham stood very high in the community in which they had lived all their lives and the attendance at their double funeral was very largely attended.

Since they had to go, it was nice for them to go practically together, for neither would be left in the terrible loneliness that was bound to come had one been left in the home alone.

Ah. Lonesomeness you were cheated,
You ask in just what way?
They buried husband and wife together,
Both on the self-same day.
There was but one funeral service,
Of caskets there were two,
Covered over with beautiful flowers,
As friends passed in review.
They’d lived together many years,
As close as life and breath,
They went together to their graves
Together through life and death.
In one way it seemed very sad
For those they left behind;
But for the husband and the wife
It was most wondrous kind.
Neither will ever know the pain
That lonesomeness can bring
The partner who left behind,
That tears and sorrowing.
And so, love on, husband and wife,
You have been double blest,
You were together all through life,
One in eternal rest.
Contributed by Don C. Van Deusen

#2-30 Apr., 1936 - The Enterprise

Much sadness prevailed at the Otto Cunningham home west of town, beginning on Friday morning when Mr. Cunningham passed away at the Nicholas Senn hospital in Omaha, having suffered from an attack of pneumonia, and on Sunday morning Mrs. Cunningham also passed to the Great Beyond, having been ill for the past several months. Funeral services were held at the Methodist church in Kennard on Monday afternoon with E. P. Booher officiating. The pallbearers were Elmer Wright, Elmer Miller, Hans Naeve, O. W. Marshall, Lars Frandsen, Harry Larsen, Hans Jorgensen, Morris Andersen, Wm. Blevins, Ray Rosenbaum, Elmer Andreasen and Milo Jeppersen. The singers were Mrs. Paul Morris, Mrs. A. E. Karnett, Mrs. Harold French and Erma Rosenbaum. Interment was made in the Kennard cemetery.

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

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