Obituary Record

Louise Johanna (Huser) Rodgers
Died on 10/22/1949
Buried in Blair Cemetery

#1-Published in the Pilot Tribune October 27, 1949.

WIFE OF FORMER FLORIST SUCCUMBS; HUSBAND AND LARGE FAMILY SURVIVE

Ill six years, Mrs. William J. Rodgers died Saturday evening at the family home, 105 South First St, She was 85 years old.

Her husband operated the Blair Greenhouse for many years before selling it to Bert Trisdale in June, 1945.

The body was removed to the Campbell Mortuary. Requiem High Mass was conducted at St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church at 9 a.m. Monday by the Rev. Edward C. O’Donnell, and interment followed in Blair Cemetery.

Louise Johanna Huser was born February 28, 1864, at Essen, Germany. She and W. J. Pieper were married in Germany in 1884 and sailed to for the United States in 1893. Enroute here, one of there children, a daughter, age 5 died of diphtheria and was buried at sea.

Arriving in America, the Pipers settled at Monongahela, Pa., where Mr. Pieper died February, 1901. On Sept. 22, 1904, Mrs. Pieper was married W. J. Rodgers, a native of Scotland.

Mrs. Rodger raised a family of eight children, three of them by her first marriage and three by Mr. Rodgers’ marriage, and two by their own union.

The Rodgers family came to Blair in 1907, and five years later Mr. Rodgers and his stepson, William T. Pieper, founded the Blair Greenhouse.

Surviving Mrs. Rodgers are her husband, W. J.; three children by her first marriage, William Pieper of Youngstown, O., Mrs. Ida Edmiston and Carl Pieper, both of Blair; two children by the second union, Mrs. Fenton Sully (nee Louise Rodgers) of Venice, Calif., and William Rodgers, Jr., of Macon, Ga.; and children by Mr. Rodgers first marriage, Mrs. Agnes Allen of Banning, Ga., and Mrs. Helen Robertson of Laramie, Wyo. Mrs. Jessie Gustason, also a daughter of Mr. Rodgers by his first marriage, died in Blair in 1921.

Also surviving Mrs. Rodgers are 20 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

#2-27 Oct., 1949 - The Enterprise

MRS. W. J. RODGERS’ RITES TUESDAY

Following an illness that dated back for over five years, Mrs. W. J. Rodgers passed away at her home October 22nd. At her death she was 85 years, 7 months and 24 days old.

She was born and reared in Germany where in 1885 she was married to W. J. Pieper. In 1893 they came to America, settling in Monongahela where in 1901 the husband passed away. Three children were born to this union: Wm. Piper of Youngstown, Ohio; Ida Edmonton and Carl Pieper, both of Blair.

In 1904 the deceased married W. J. Rodgers and to this union two children were born: Louise Sulby of Venice, California and W. J. Rogers, Jr. of Macon, Georgia.

Mr. Rodgers had been married before, his first wife having passed on and to this union three children were born: Agnes Allen of Banning, California and Helen Robinson of Laramie, Wyoming and Mrs. Jessie Gustason, who died some years ago.

Mrs. Rodgers, with her big mother heart, took all these children as though they were her own and mothered them, bringing them through the childhood stage to maturity, and she did an exemplary job as everyone of them are reputable citizens and high in the respect of the people of the community where they reside.

Some time back the daughter, Mrs. Ida Edminston and her husband gave up their positions in the town where they resided and moved to Blair, taking their place in the Rodgers’ home to care for the mother in her declining days and now Mrs. Edminston asserts that she will remain in the home and care to Mr. Rodgers as long as he lives. All of the children, except Mrs. Allen, were present at the funeral and all joined with the grief-stricken father over the greatest loss possible, the loss of a mother’s love.

Besides the children already mentioned, twenty grandchildren and great grandchildren survive.

Funeral services were held Tuesday morning at 9 o’clock from the Catholic church of which she was a member, and interment under the supervision of the Campbell Mortuary was made in the Blair cemetery.

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

FindaGrave # 118389043

Printed in the Washington County Pilot-Tribune on 10/27/2019


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