Christen Jeppesen, retired pastor of the Bethany Lutheran Church of Ord, Nebraska, and the Dannevirke Lutheran Church of Dannervirke, died at Valley County Hospital, December 24, 1971 at the age of 84 years, 1 month and 10 days.

Pastor Jeppesen was born in Vadum, Denmark on November 14, 1887, to Kristian and Maren Nielsen Jeppesen. Orphaned while still in grade school, he immigrated to America at the age of eighteen, coming to Elkhorn, Iowa. After studying at Elkhorn College, Elkhorn, Iowa while working on farms in the area and on the railroad, he graduated from Dana College, Blair, Nebraska. He did graduate work at Maywood Seminary, Maywood, Ill., before being ordained in 1916 into the ministry of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, now part of the American Lutheran Church.

He was married to Anna Nielsen of Elkhorn in 1916 and became the minister of the First Trinity Lutheran Church of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he served until 1937. From 1937 to 1943, he lived in Atlantic, iowa. From there he came to Ord where he served until 1965 when he retired several months before celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination into the ministry.

Following his retirement from the ministry of the Bethany Lutheran Church and the death of Mrs. Jeppesen in March of 1966, he took a trip back to his homeland in Denmark visiting his relatives, birthplace and the high school from which he graduated.

Rev. Jeppesen is survived by two sons, Herbert of Des Plaines, Ill., and Paul of Pomona, California, and one granddaughter, Lynda Ruth of Des Plaines.

Funeral services were held Tuesday, December 28, 1971, at 2:00 p.m. at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Ord, Nebraska with Rev. John W. Nielsen (Dana College, Blair, Nebraska) and Rev. P.F. Stohlmann, Jr., of St. John’s Lutheran Church of Ord, Nebraska officiating. Mrs. Zola Schudel of Ord accompanied Homer F. Nielsen who sang “I Saw Him in Childhood” and “Our Father Has Light in His Window.” The congregation sang, “Now Thank We All Our God” and “Beautiful Savior.”

Pallbearers were Elmer Christensen, Albert Clausen, Nelson Dearmont, Dean Gross, Eldon Jensen and Kenneth Rasmussen. Honorary pallbearers were Jim Aagaard, Dean Bresley, Art Larsen, Paul Laursen, Herman Nielsen, James Olsen and Peter Rasmussen. Burial was in the Ord city cemetery with Ord Memorial Chapel in charge of arrangements.