Mary G. (Robinson) Lempke

Mary Grace (Robinson) Lempke passed away on June 12, 2017.  A proud British citizen, Mary was born in Hull, United Kingdom on November 24, 1922.  Her father was lost at sea about 18 months later.  She and her two brothers were raised by their mother Lucy.

Always adventuresome, Mary enlisted in the British Royal Air Force after the start of WWII and became an aircraft plotter.  She tracked the movement of Allied Air Forces during D-Day (June 6, 1944).   It was during this period that the greatest change in her life occurred.  At a military social, shortly after D-Day, a young US Army Air Corps Lieutenant named Arthur Lempke asked her to dance.  On June 2, 1945, they married in the United Kingdom.

Leaving family and friends behind and adjusting from British customs to American farm life in Southeast Nebraska near Tecumseh was challenging.  To compensate for her distance from family in Great Britain Mary created her own family.  She bore six children.  She and Art were a team.  Art farmed and milked the cows; Mary raised chickens and kids.  They worked and saved to purchase a farm in 1959 in the Spring Creek precinct. They farmed for nearly fifty years before retiring and moving into Tecumseh.  After his death Mary moved to Lincoln to be near family.

Mary kept her British citizenship and accent.  People meeting her for the first time recognized the English accent immediately.   She was a great cook.  The summer farm help who hauled hay remember the homemade lunches she served.  In their later years Art and Mary traveled and enjoyed their grandchildren.

Mary is preceded in death by her father, George; mother, Lucy; husband, Art; brothers, Philip and George; daughter Barbara and her husband, Larry Shoff; and granddaughter Michell Wheeler.

She is survived by Roger (Shirlee Ford), John (Vickie Kaster), Mary Jean (Kent Zanders), Betty (Tim Clark), and Michael (Nancy Wheeler).  Her grandchildren and great grandchildren are: Aimee Muehling (Mike and children Brian and Jayden); Mike Lempke (Jen and children Tayler, Austin, Kaylee, and Caden); Julie Shoff; Jeff Lempke (Marla and children Arianna and August); Denise Haake (James and children Hudson and Berkley); James and Joe Zanders; Grace, Dominic, Olivia, Atticus, and George Carlo Clark ; and David Wheeler (Jessica and children Ashton and Ella).

   Celebration of Life services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, June 18, 2017 at the Wherry Mortuary in Tecumseh, Nebraska, with Rev. Hugh Giesbrecht officiating.

   Register book signing will be at the Wherry Mortuary in Tecumseh, Nebraska, Friday, June 16, 2017 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

   Memorials may go to the Spring Creek Cemetery or Avenue of Flags, Tecumseh, Nebraska.

   Inurnment will be in the Spring Creek Cemetery, rural Tecumseh, Nebraska. 

   Online condolences may be left @ www.wherrymortuary.com.  

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