Esther L. Kempf

Funeral Services for Esther will be held on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at 11:00 AM at the Salem Mennonite Church in Rural Shickley, NE. Visitation will begin on Friday, September 18, 2015 at 1:00 PM until 8:00 PM with the family being present to welcome friends and extended family from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM at Farmer & Son Funeral Home in Geneva. Graveside services will be held following the funeral service in the Salem Cemetery. Memorials are to be directed to the Mennonite Central Committee or Hesston College. Esther Lapp Kempf was born on March 13, 1925, in Perkasie, Pennsylvania to Norman B. Lapp and Mabel Wismer Lapp. She passed away September 16, 2015, at Heritage Crossings in Geneva, Nebraska at the age of 90 years. She was the oldest in a family of six children. Esther had fond memories of growing up in a row house in Perkasie, playing on the street with the neighboring children and visiting her rural cousins nearby. Esther was baptized and became a member of Blooming Glen Mennonite Church at the age of fifteen. Graduating from Sell-Perk Consolidated High School in June of 1942, she then worked for the U.S. Gauge factory until January of 1946, when she moved to Akron, Pennsylvania and worked as a secretary in the offices of Mennonite Central Committee. There she met her husband, Wayne D. Kempf, and they were married on April 24, 1948 at Perkasie Mennonite Church. The couple first moved to near Strang, Nebraska to farm with Wayne’s father, Roy Kempf. Living in an isolated rural setting without electricity and indoor plumbing was a challenge for Esther after growing up in a town with many neighbors and conveniences. In 1952 they moved to a farm east of Shickley, Nebraska, where they raised their family of six children. Esther loved classical music and the history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where she lived in her youth. Her ancestors had immigrated there around 1720. She instilled a love of music in all of her children, and as an active member of Salem Mennonite Church, she was involved in music and historic preservation. Esther was preceded in death by her husband, parents, sister Margaret Lapp Reimer, and brothers, Stanley Lapp and Marvin Lapp. She is survived by two brothers; N. LeRoy Lapp of Morgantown, WV, and Gordon Lapp of Philadelphia, PA; sons and daughters-in-law Donald and Shirley Kempf of Shickley, NE, David and Susan Kempf of Hellertown, PA, and Dale and Kay Kempf of Libertyville, IL; daughters and sons-in-law Ellen and Byron Miller of Waterloo, IA, Margaret and William Swartzendruber of Shickley, NE, and Anita Kempf of Third Lake, IL; 13 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

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Esther L. Kempf

March 13, 1925 - September 16, 2015