JUDGE MENCKE IS DEAD

HENRY MENCKE, NEARING 72, RETIRED AS COUNTY JUDGE LAST YEAR

LUTHERAN SERVICES SET FOR SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Henry Mencke, Blair lawyer who prior to his retirement had served many years both as Washington County attorney and county judge, died at 11:45 p.m. last evening at the Blair Convalescent Home. He would have been 72 next Monday. In a coma for two days preceding his death, Mr. Mencke had been hospitalized eight months.

The funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at First Lutheran Church. The Campbell Mortuary will have charge of burial arrangements in Blair Cemetery.

Mr. Mencke, due to ill health, resigned in May, 1947, as acting county judge.

Son of Claus and Tina Mencke, pioneers of this vicinity, Henry Mencke was born on a farm west of Blair June 28, 1876, one of a family of eight. He attended the Blair city schools, and on Sept. 21, 1900, was married to Eliza V. McCoy.

#2 Printed in the Saturday, June 26, 1948 Fremont Tribune, p. 2

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FUNERAL IS SUNDAY FOR HENRY MENCKE

Blair—Funeral services for Henry Mencke, Blair lawyer who died Thursday night, have been set for 2 p.m. Sunday at the First Lutheran church in Blair.

Mencke, a former Washington county attorney, died at a Blair hospital after an illness of eight months. He was in a coma for two days before his death.

The son of Claus and Tina Mencke, Blair pioneers, Henry Mencke was born on a farm west of Blair, June 28, 1876. He attended the Blair schools and on September 21, 1900, was married to Eliza V. McCoy.

His first public office was that of city clerk in 1898. Although admitted to the bar in 1900 he was a deputy sheriff for his father and served as a deputy county treasurer until 1904. He has also worked for a contracting company and was affiliated with a bank in Buffalo county before he returned to Blair in 1912 to practice law.

Mencke was Washington county attorney for several terms and was also Blair’s city attorney. He became acting county judge after the deaths of John A. Carrigan and Albae H. Nelson. Mencke retired in May, 1947 from the county judge office because of ill health.

Mrs. Mencke died in February 8, 1945. Also preceding the prominent Blairite in death were a daughter, Marguerite, two brothers, Will and Clifford, and a sister, Ella.

Survivors are a son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Mencke of Blair, a granddaughter, Miss Marilyn Mencke, Blair; two brothers, George of Seattle, Wash., and John of Eugene, Ore.; and two FindaGrave # sisters, Miss Bessie Mencke and Mrs. Ernest Lazure, both of Portland, Ore.

The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the First Lutheran church. The Campbell mortuary will have charge of the burial arrangements in Blair cemetery.

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

FindaGrave #76023138