The funeral of Mrs. G. S. Van Deusen, the editor’s mother, was held at the family residence on Davis Avenue last Thursday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Rev. L. H. Camp, pastor of the Christian church, officiating. The day was a perfect one, as fair and beautiful as the life she had lived, as serene and peaceful as was her tired old body in its last sleep. We laid her away by the side of her companion for fifty-six years, whose funeral was held less than four weeks before. Near, too, are four little ones who have slept in tiny graves for many years. During her illness she either saw them in reality or in fancy and kissed the pillow by her side saying she was kissing the baby. At any rate when she was kissed by Death she was soon holding them in her arms in the spirit world and showering them with the kiss of a mother’s love. And we are convinced there is no love that can compare with the measureless depth and beauty of a mother’s love. God’s love alone is greater and its purity and beauty refines the soul of everyone who sees and feels it. The music was furnished by a quartette composed of Misses Vanola Brunton and Cora Stricklett, John Anderson and F. W. Arndt. The pallbearers were Frank Schafer, Chas. C. Reeh, Norman Wilkins, Chas. McBride, D. W. Compton and John McDonald. They, with the minister and singers have the sincere thanks of the family. The flowers that she loved so well were so beautiful we would like to have had her rest among them always, if that were possible. We have never appreciated so much the love and kindliness that prompts the sending of these beautiful tokens, and in the future we will know better what it means to the bereaved. It seems that nothing can take their place for there is nothing quite so perfect in form and beauty. God must have made them to show his perfection and beauty, and there is nothing quite so fitting to lay on the ?ier of our dead. With both parents gone from us within the month what was home, the centre of our affections for twenty-three years, is now but a house, vacant and awaiting other feet to cross its threshold.

Enterprise 1 May 1924

Mrs. G. S. Van Deusen

Mrs. G. S. Van Deusen, an old and highly respected citizen of this county and city, passed away Tuesday morning, April 29, at her home in west Blair after a long and serious illness of heart trouble.

Mrs. Van Deusen was ill at the time of her husband’s death which occurred the first week in April.

The deceased was born in Ohio in 1844 and came to Nebraska with her husband and children over fifty years ago.

They lived for many years on a farm near Kennard, where the son, C. C. now lives. Retiring from farm life they moved to Blair in 1901 where they have since resided.

She is survived by six children, John Chamberlain of Norfolk, Claude C. and H. G. Van Deusen of Kennard, D. C. Van Deusen of Blair, Mrs. Henry Kasbohn of Dunbar, Neb. and Mrs. Don J. Gammel of Tekamah.

Funeral services were held Thursday afternoon at 2:30 from the home and interment made in the Blair cemetery.

Pilot 30 April 1924

Mrs. G. S. Van Deusen, the editor’s mother, died quite suddenly at 12:30 yesterday morning. She had been sick with heart trouble for about five weeks, at times so low that her death was hourly expected, but she had rallied and was distinctly better last Wednesday, sat up part of the time and ate heartily for her condition. She had been a dazed, partially unconscious state from which she was only aroused occasionally, but that day she was herself and things and people seemed natural to her. We had hopes of her recovery, but the next day she wasn’t quite so well but there seemed little change up to Monday when she suffered a good deal of pain. At about midnight she had a severe pain in the back of her head and a little later while sitting by the side of the bed she suddenly collapsed with a moan and when she was gotten back on the bed she was dead, evidently from a cerebral hemorrhage. She had lived just 26 days longer than her companion of fifty-six years, his death occurring April 3rd. The funeral will be held at the house on Davis Avenue at 2:30 tomorrow, Thursday, afternoon, Rev. L. H. Camp officiating. She was a member of the Free Methodist church but had been attending the Christian church for several years past, there being no regular pastor of her church. Hannah Green was born in Marietta, Ohio, January 19th, 1844, so was past 80 years of age. She grew to womanhood there and was married to John Chamberlain in October of 1864 whose death occurred just six months later. One son, John, was born to them, but he never saw his father. On December 12th, 1968, she was married to Gerrett S. Van Deusen and they came to Nebraska in 1873, settling on the Papio five miles southwest of Blair, where they lived until 1901, when they moved to the house in this city where her death occurred. She is survived by six children, J. A. Chamberlain, of Norfolk, Neb., Claude C. and H. G. Van Deusen, of Kennard, Mrs. Henry Kasbohn, of Dunbar, Neb., Mrs. Don J. Gammel, of Tekamah, and the writer. Also one sister, Miss Kate Green, of Beverly, Ohio, the only survivor of a family of five. There are 18 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. She was a member of the W. R. C. and took great pleasure in attending. She was a devout Christian and loved the church and its services, attending faithfully whenever able to do so. So we have lost both a father and a mother in one short month. We would liked to have kept them with us always if they could have been well and could enjoy life, but that is impossible, and dear as is the tie that binds parents and children it must be severed for it is the way of the world. We had them with us a long time, much longer than most people have their parents, and are glad this was possible, but now they belong to God and to eternity. It was harder to see them grow so frail with the yeas than to see “the last great change appear”. But their passing has increased our interest on the other side as will the passing of other relatives and friends until our greatest interest shall be there and we shall be weaned away from life here and ready for the life that is to come.

Tribune 1 May 1924

Mrs. G. S. Van Deusen Died Monday Evening

Once again the shadow of death has visited the home of the Van Deusen family, this time claiming as its victim the Pilot editor’s mother, whose death occurred Monday evening – only a few weeks after the taking of her devoted husband.

Mrs. Van Deusen had been in failing health for some time, although a few days prior to her death she seemed to rally and hopes were entertained that she might be spared to the family – but a long vigil at the side of her devoted husband prior to his death has so weakened her that the rally was only temporary.

The funeral was held from the home this afternoon at 2:30, the services being in charge of Rev. L. H. Camp of the Church of Christ, this being the church Mrs. Van Deusen had affiliated with for years and to which denomination nearly all her friends of her former days on the farm belonged.

Mrs. Van Deusen was a good mother; she had lived a life of self-sacrifice and never was there a time that the welfare of her husband and children was not her first thought.. No sacrifice was too great for her to make if by doing so she thought their path in life could be made easier, and her comfort in life was the doing of things that others could be made happier.

She was married to G. S. Van Deusen in Ohio and came with him to Nebraska in 1873, settling west of Blair where with her husband she overcame the vicissitudes of the pioneer days in Washington county, moving to Blair a number of years ago. The surviving children are Don C. Van Deusen, editor of the Pilot, H. C. Van Deusen a farmer living on the old home place, H. G. of Kennard, Mrs. Henry Kasssebaum of Dunbar , and Mrs. Don J. Gammel of Tekamah. Besides these, there is a son by a former marriage, John Chamberlain, who resides at Norfolk, Nebr.

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