Sara Pierce

Former Hastings resident, Sara Blanche Pierce, 90, of Loveland, Colorado, died Friday, December 7, 2001 in Loveland, Colorado.

Memorial service will be Saturday, December 22, 2001; 1:30 P.M. at Grace United Methodist Church, Hastings, Nebraska with Rev. Jim Miller officiating. Private family interment.

Blanche Pierce was born December 12, 1910 in Cairo, Nebraska to Otis & Ethel (Peters) Burry. She graduated from Shelton High School, Shelton, Nebraska in 1926 at the age of 15. She attended college at Kearney Normal School that summer and began teaching in a rural school near Ravenna, Nebraska prior to her 16th birthday. Her parents relocated to Ericson, Nebraska and she taught there. On December 27, 1938, she married Frank W. Pierce of Ericson, in Gering Nebraska and he preceded her in death in 1991. She retired from teaching to raise a family. They lived in Denver, Colorado, Cairo & Ericson, Nebraska. Blanche began teaching again in 1955 in Ericson. She also taught at Bartlett and a rural Garfield County School until 1967. She served as Wheeler County Superintendent of Schools and as a member of the Ericson Rural High School Board of Education. She taught for over 30 years. She also assisted her husband who managed the Pierce Drug Sundry Store. In 1967, they moved to Sargent, Nebraska , where they managed a jewelry and drug sundry store. She attended Cliff Mann Floral School in Denver, Colorado and then worked at a floral shop in Sargent. She served on the Sargent Nursing Home Board of Directors and was a member of the Sargent chapter of the PEO. They managed the Hamilton Motor Inn at Aurora, Nebraska and then the Erin Rancho Motel in Grand Island, Nebraska before retiring to Hastings, Nebraska in 1978. She was a member of Grace United Methodist Church in Hastings. In Ericson, she taught Sunday School, led the Junior and Senior Choirs, Methodist Youth Fellowship, served as Sunday School Superintendent and was a member of the Women's Society of Christian Service. In Sargent, she was a member of the Methodist Church Miriam Circle. Blanche made her home at the Haven Home of Kenesaw from 1993 to 2001, when she moved to the Sierra Vista Care Center, Loveland, Colorado.

Blanche Pierce was preceded in death by her parents, husband, Frank, an infant brother, 1 sister, Berniece Allen and a grandson.

Survivors include,
Daughters & Sons-in-law: Muriel & Don Nelson - Chandler, AZ
Lorrie & Dr. G. Lynn Nelson - Tempe, AZ
Linda & Bob Boysen - Loveland, CO
8 Grandchildren
8 Great Grandchildren

Memorial maybe given to Grace United Methodist Church - Hastings, NE
Ericson United Methodist Church - Ericson, NE

Butler-Volland Funeral Home is in charge of local arrangements.