Ethel Jennie Backhaus

Ethel Jennie Backhaus

Services for Ethel Jennie Backhaus, age 75, were held at 2:00 P.M., Monday, March 27, 1989, at the Open Bible Church in Lusk with Rev. Tom Vaughn officiating. Burial will follow in the Crawford Cemetery in Crawford, Nebraska.

Mrs. Backhaus died Wednesday, March 22, 1989 in Lance Creek after undergoing radiation therapy for cancer last January. She was born December 18, 1913, in Marsland, Nebraska, the daughter of Charles Alfred Lester Finley and Grace Pearl Wolff. She spent her early years in Nebraska and in the Whitman, Wyoming area, attending school at Pine Knott and graduating from high school in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She later studied cosmetology.

On April 15, 1936, she married Kenneth Ivan Seegrist, living near Van Tassell and later in Lusk. To this union five children were born.

On February 21, 1947, she married John C. Backhaus. She was employed as a maid in several motels and as a cook for the Niobrara Memorial Hospital until her retirement in 1978.

She loved gardening, outdoor life, cooking, baking, and was a seamstress. She loved her grandchildren and reared three of them. She had many talents, and was always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone.

She was preceded in death by her parents, a sister, Gertrude Shaeffer, a brother, David Wallace Finley, and a grandson, Darrin Seegrist.

Survivors include; her husband, John Backhaus of Lusk; three sister, Gladys Chard of Lance Creek, Ilah Graber and Wyanona Martin both of Sheridan, WY; her five children, Alfred K. Seegrist of Renton, WA, Clifford T. Seegrist of San Diego, CA, Delores E. Bennett of Thermopolis, WY, Dennis D. Seegrist of Escondido, CA, and Linda L. Kant of Lance Creek, WY; thirteen grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren and numerous other relatives and friends.

For those who wish, memorials to the family would be appreciated.

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