Services were Wednesday, May 8 at Elk Horn Lutheran Church for Martha Jorgensen Petersen, who died May 5, 1991 at Clarkson Hospital in Omaha. Rev. Tim Johnson officiated. Burial was in Bethany Lutheran Cemetery east of Kimballton, Iowa.

Martha Jorgensen Petersen was born February 17, 1901 on a farm north of Jacksonville in Shelby County to Hans Hansen and Maren Christina Petersen Jorgensen. She was baptized and confirmed in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church at Jacksonville and attended Jackson No. 5 Elementary School.

She attended summer school at Harlan, Missouri Valley and Atlantic and took correspondence courses from Omaha and Drake University. She received her Normal Training from Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa and after graduation taught school at Jackson No. 2.

In 1923, she decided to continue her education and attended Dana College for two years. After graduation, she moved to Spokane, Washington and was a secretary in a real estate office and a mining company. When she returned to Iowa she continued her career as a school teacher and taught at Polk No. 1 by Fiscus.

She married Lars Jorgen Petersen April 28, 1928 at her parents’ home near Jacksonville and left teaching at that time. When Iowa law changed to allow married women to teach, she returned to teaching and taught at No. 6, No. 8 and No. 9 in Jacksonville, Township.

She and her husband farmed at various farms in Audubon and Shelby Counties in Iowa and in Washington and Dodge Counties in Nebraska.

She began working at the Salem Nursing Home in 1959 and worked there for 20 years, retiring in 1979.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Jorgen in 1981; an infant son; an infant grand-daughter; two sisters and four brothers.

She is survived by her three children and their spouses, Merle and Joy Petersen of Kimballton, Iowa; Pauline and Bill Bahnke of Omaha and Ellen and Warren Whitaker of Blair; six grandchildren, Cindy and Mark Steen of Omaha; Curt and Cindy Petersen of Audobon, Iowa; Cheryl and Sam Sacco of Omaha; Dick and Bahnke of Port Arthur, Texas; Bon Bahnke of Merriam, Kansas; and Kirsten Whitaker of Blair; three step-grand-children; Sherry Petersen of Las Vegas, Nevada; Shane and Kathy Petersen of Wichita, Kansas; Sheila and Pat Welshorfer of Reed Spring, Missouri; ten great-grandchildren and one sister, Agnes Sorensen of Harlan, Iowa.

Casket bearers were Martha’s grandsons, Curt Petersen, Dick Bahnke, Don Bahnke, Mark Steen, Sam Sacco and Shane Petersen.