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Mennonite Weekly Review - October 2008
 
   Blough, Ronald Lamar;    Buller, Beatrice R. Rosenthal;   Claassen, Gertrude Claassen;   Eshleman, Arlene H.;  
Mennonite Weekly Review - October 6, 2008

There were no obituaries in this issue.


Mennonite Weekly Review -October 13, 2008 - 86th Year, No. 38 - p. 9


Eshleman, Arlene H
.

Arlene Heatwole Eshleman, 98, died Oct. 1, 2008, in Elkhart, Ind.  She was born Dec. 7, 1909, in Rockingham County, Va., to Amos and Sallie Heatwole.
She graduated from high school at Eastern Mennonite School in Harrisonburg, Va., and from Dunsmore Business College.

On June 28, 1933, she married Harold G. Eshleman, a public school teacher who was later ordained as a minister.  During their marriage of 64 years, she faithfully supported her husband’s church work by serving as church secretary, home office manager and hostess. She was a long-time member of Harrisonburg Mennonite Church.

Survivors include three children, Robert Eshleman and his wife, Rosalie, of Midlothian, Va., Ruth Schrock and her husband, Devon, of Goshen, Ind.; and Kenneth Eshleman and his wife, Myrna, of Mechanicsburg, Pa.; two sisters, Nellie Early and Dorothy Smith; five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Harold, on Feb. 27, 1998; her grandson Lee Eshleman on May 17, 2007; one brother and four sisters.
A memorial service will be held at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church on Oct. 18.


Mennonite Weekly Review - October 20, 2008 - 86th Year, No. 39 - p. 21

Claassen, Gertrude Claassen

Gertrude Claassen, 84, of Beatrice, Neb., died Sept. 15, 2008. She was born Oct. 31, 1923, to Henry P. and Elizabeth (Thimm) Claassen in Beatrice.
On Feb. 2, 1945, she married Don Aron Claassen.
She was a member of Beatrice Mennonite Church, where she served as church secretary for many years. She also volunteered in many settings, including Ten Thousand Villages in Lincoln. She enjoyed being a homemaker, caring for her family, hosting guests in her home, doing homework and being creative in her kitchen.
Survivors include her husband, Don; two daughters, Barbara Kaufman and her husband, Dick, of Hutchinson, Kan., and Kathryn Colwell Hill and her husband, Hal, of Richmond, Va.; five grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews; and special friends Ted and Diane Summers and family.
She was preceded in death by two sisters, Frieda Claassen and Dorthy Goossen.
Funeral services were held at Beatrice Mennonite Church. Burial was in the Mennonite Cemetery of rural Beatrice.

Mennonite Weekly Review - October 27, 2008 - 86th Year, No. 40 - p. 9

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Buller, Beatrice R. Rosenthal


Beatrice Rosenthal Buller died Oct. 12, 2008, in a Dallas, Texas, hospital. As in the 1930s, she again had become a refugee, this time not  to escape the fury of the Nazis but that of Hurricane Ike, which threatened her home in Beaumont.
She was born in 1920 in Duisburg, Germany, a child of a middle class Jewish family. Her father was a prominent lawyer in that city. The anti-Jewish policies of the Nazis forced the Rosenthal family to leave Germany in the early 1930s and to settle in Antwerp, Belgium. When the Germans invaded that country in May 1940, the Rosenthal family fled to unoccupied France, where they were able to find safe hiding places. She settled in Lyon, where she found employment at the Mennonite Central Committee office. There she met MCC worker Henry Buller, whom she would marry on Nov. 11, 1942, on the same day the Germans occupied the rest of France. They had hoped she would be baptized by Fritz Gerber, pastor of the Mennonite church in Langnau, Switzerland, but baptism would have to wait until they settled in the United States. Subsequently, she, Henry, other relief workers, American diplomats and journalists were interned for more than one year in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Soon after their release in February 1944, Henry returned to war-stricken Europe. She would join him in France after the war to resume MCC relief work. Upon their return home, she graduated from and taught foreign languages at Bethel College in North Newton, Kan. Having no children of their own, they adopted Rene, a French orphan. Tragically, Rene was killed in Vietnam on March 27, 1969, where he served as a medic with the U.S. Army.
For many years they lived in Beaumont, where Henry taught at Lamar University. He preceded her in death in 1993. She kept busy, in spite of some major health problems, teaching and doing local volunteer work. She will be missed by many friends in Beaumont and many Mennonites, who very much appreciated her for her kind and lively spirit.

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Blough, Ronald Lamar


Ronald Lamar Blough, 54, pastor of Greeley (Colo.) Mennonite Church, died of a cardiac arrest on Aug. 22, 2008, at his home near Windsor. He was born Oct. 28, 1953, to Robert Samuel Blough and Mary Edna Nisly Blough Miller in Canton, Ohio.
He was raised and educated in Ohio. He attended the University of Akron, Ohio, and received his master of divinity degree at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Va. He worked as a master carpenter, and he pastored Mennonite churches in Harleysville, Pa., Louisville, Ohio, and Greeley.
He married Rhoda Miller on June 21, 1975, in Burton, Ohio.
He was a devoted husband, father, son, uncle and friend. He was an avid bird watcher, gardener and enjoyed the outdoors and nature. He also enjoyed cooking gourmet meals for his family and friends.  He always had a story, a warm hug and a listening ear.
Survivors include his wife, Rhoda; two daughters, Bethany Simpson and her husband, John, of Denver, and Brooke Blough of Goshen, Ind.; his mother, Mary; two sisters, Brenda LaTulippe and her husband, Keith, of Asheville, N.C., and Delores Blough of Harrisonburg, Va.; a brother, Dwayne Blough and his wife, Pam, of Mogadore, Ohio; an expected grandchild; and numerous nieces and nephews.
A celebration of life service was held at Greeley Mennonite Church.


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Copyright 2003 - All rights reserved - Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale, PA
Used with permission by the Archives of the Mennonite Church, Goshen, INDIANA
Permission granted to private family researchers to use selected portions of these files to tell their family stories.
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