LAWRENCE — Nell Thalheim, 101, entered into eternal rest on Friday, May 4, 2012 at Brandon Woods Retirement Center, Lawrence.
Nell V. Thalheim was born April 15, 1911, in Pawnee Rock, the daughter of Jacob and Josephine (Siebert) Schmidt. She was a former Great Bend and McPherson resident.
She was raised in the Bergthal Mennonite community and attended country school.  Nell learned to speak English in the first grade as German was the language spoken in her parents’ house.  She graduated from Pawnee High School and moved to Great Bend and worked in various jobs.  She married Arthur F. Thalheim Oct. 6, 1940 in Great Bend.  She was a homemaker, devoted mother, and worked with her husband in running the family farming business.  
She was a former member of the Congregational Church of Great Bend and was active in church organizations.  She moved to McPherson in October of 1984.  She later joined the First Congregational United Church of Christ in McPherson and has been a member for more than 20 years.  She lived in Lawrence since November of 2003.
Survivors include two daughters, Kerry Thalheim, Lewes, Del.; Cheryl Thalheim, McPherson; a son, Arthur “Fred” Thalheim, Lawrence; her unofficial adopted daughter, Gayle Williams, McPherson; and numerous nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Arlis Jean, in 1943, her husband Arthur, in 1964, and three brothers and five sisters.
Graveside services for Nell Thalheim are scheduled at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Great Bend Cemetery with Pastor H. Dick Reynolds, Jr. officiating. The family received friends and relatives Tuesday at the Glidden-Ediger Chapel, McPherson.

Funeral arrangements provided by
Glidden-Ediger Funeral Home
222 West Euclid Street
McPherson, KS, 67460
Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune, May 9, 2012