Ethel Dedering

Ethel Dedering of Lincoln passed away peacefully on Friday, May 26, 2017 at the age of 94. She was born on January 7, 1923 to Rev. Clare and Louise VanMetre in Crawford, Nebr. As the daughter of a Methodist minister, she lived in several different towns throughout Nebraska and Kansas and attended several different elementary schools, including Gibbon and Arnold, Nebr., and Hays and McCracken, Kan., graduating from David City, Nebr. High School in 1940. She enrolled at Nebraska Wesleyan University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944. She then enrolled at Columbia University in New York City, receiving her graduate degree in Library Science in 1945. While living in New York, she took advantage of the arts and cultural scene, attending many Broadway shows and concerts. Ethel’s professional library career began at the Detroit Public Library, where she met her husband, Harry, who was home after serving in WWII. They married in June 1946 in Lincoln and lived in Detroit and Lansing, Mich., where their first child, Susan was born in 1948. When Harry left to serve in the Korean War, Ethel returned to Nebraska where their second child Michael was born in 1950. Ethel worked as a librarian and a teacher at the Wahoo, Nebr. High School and at Luther Junior College in Wahoo. She also worked for the Nebraska State Public Library Commission in Lincoln. Shortly after their third child, Margie, was born in 1961, the family moved to Minneapolis, Minn. There Ethel continued her professional library work at the Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis and also worked for the University of Minnesota bookstores. After Harry’s death in 1979, Ethel moved back to Lincoln in 1983 and became the librarian at Saint Paul United Methodist Church, where she worked until her retirement. Throughout her professional career she belonged to the American Library Association, the Nebraska Library Association, and to the National Education Association. Ethel had always been very active in the Methodist churches wherever she lived and in the Women’s Societies of those churches. Her volunteer work centered on the activities of her children while they were growing up and her love of books. She took the Great Books training and led a Junior Great Books program in the local elementary school in Columbia Heights, Minn. She served two terms on the Columbia Heights Public Library Board. While living in Lincoln in the 1950’s, she helped to set up and organize a library in the Meadow Lane Elementary School. This was before most Lincoln elementary schools had libraries, and for this volunteer work, she received an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the Nebraska PTA. She organized book discussion groups in several of the churches she belonged to, including Saint Paul United Methodist Church. There she started the Wednesday Morning Reading Program. Her other volunteer work included serving with Clergy & Laity Concerned About Vietnam, an organization formed by the National Council of Churches. Her interests included sewing and hand crafts, including needlepoint, cross-stitch, and rug-hooking. She taught herself couture sewing and tailoring. She volunteered for the local 4-H in Columbia Heights and taught the neighborhood girls to sew. She loved to read and always had at least one or two books in progress at all times. Her passion was genealogy, an avocation that lasted more than 40 years and took her to historical museums, libraries and cemeteries around the country. She served on the boards of the Lincoln/Lancaster County Genealogical Society and the Nebraska State Genealogical Society, as well as belonging to several other genealogical and historical societies in other states. She cultivated many friends and relatives through her research and traveled extensively with many of them. Besides Harry, Ethel was preceded in death by her son Michael in 1997. She is survived by daughters and sons-in-law Susan and Gary Zook of Fort Collins, Colo. and Margaret and Dorian Grilley of St. Paul, Minn.; sister Shirley VanMetre of Wahoo, Nebr; daughter-in-law Nancy Luedemann of Minneapolis, Minn.; grandchildren Nathan (Julie) Zook of Lubbock, Tex., Carolyn Zook of Portland, Ore., Scott (Alicia) Dedering of St. Michael, Minn., Erin (Kyle) Jackson of Minneapolis, Davis and Clare Grilley of St. Paul; great-grandchildren Sofia and Ezra Zook, Lubbock, and Isla Jackson, Minneapolis. A celebration of Ethel’s life will be held on Friday, June 30, 2017 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 1144 M Street, Lincoln, with a family reception at 10:00AM, memorial service at 11:00AM, with lunch to follow. Memorials may be given to the church. Condolences: lincolnfh.com