Fatherless Family of 11 Plans to Remain on Farm

Art Pille’s death has left 11 children without a father and his Australian-born wife without a husband, but the family says the tragedy won’t drive them off the farm.

“The boys want to keep it going. They have taken over where he left off,” Mrs. Pille said Tuesday.

Pille, 53, was crushed Thursday when he fell between the wheels of a truck at the Fort Calhoun Stone Company plant where he worked. Services were Monday at St. Francis Borgia Church in Blair, Nebraska.

The Pilles met in Australia in World War II, when he was in the Air Force. They moved to Blair in 1956. About nine years ago, they rented a farm to supplement his income by raising meat and milking cows.

Pille was raised on a farm and loved farm life, Mrs. Pille said.

Seven of the children live at home—Charles, 16; Vincent, 15; Eddie, 14; Mary, 12; Neil, 10; Anne Marie, 7, and Lyle, 3.

Brian, 27, lives in Omaha; Joseph, 23, in Columbus, Nebraska; Kevin, 18, in Blair, and Julie, 20, is a student at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Other survivors include Pille’s mother, Mrs. Joseph Pille of Marshalltown, Iowa; three brothers and three sisters.

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

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