Mabel Aiken

Mabel Hendrick Aiken, a resident of The Kensington, passed away on Monday, December 29, 2003 at Perkins Pavilion.

Memorial service will be Friday, January 2, 2004, 11:00 A.M. at First Congregational United Church of Christ with co-officiants Pastor Barry Rempp & Karen Roback officiating. Private family interment at Parkview Cemetery, Hastings, Nebraska.

Mabel was born in Thayer, Iowa, on February 13, 1913, to Felix and Millie (Zahller) Hendrick. She was the second of five children. When she was nine, the family moved to a farm near O'Neill, Nebraska.

A graduate of St. Mary's Academy in O'Neill, Mabel attended Wayne State Teacher's College and the University of Minnesota. She taught school in rural Holt County and at Campbell, Nebraska. During World War II, she was an instructor of radio operating at the Army Air Field Training School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, teaching Morse code to the soldiers. On July 3, 1944, Mabel married William F. Aiken in Sioux Falls. They moved to Hastings in 1948, where Bill worked as a pharmacist, and she was a substitute teacher in the Hastings Public Schools for 20 years.

Mabel was an active member of the First Congregational Church for over 50 years. She was active in the Retired Teachers Association, Friendly Dozen Extension Club, Book Club, Friendship Tea and the Y.W.C.A.

Mabel is survived by two daughters, Susan K. Kiel, formerly of Grand Island and Nancy Miller, of Portland, Oregon, two granddaughters, Teresa Johnson of Lincoln, and Kristi Kiel of Portland, Oregon, two great granddaughters of Lincoln, and sister Helen Alm of O'Neill. Her husband, Bill, brother George Hendrick, and sisters Margaret Stewart and Mary Jo Deao preceded her in death.

The family requests memorial gifts be given to the First Congregational United Church of Christ of Hastings.