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Celesta Mary KOECK

Female 1929 - 2020  (90 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Celesta Mary KOECK 
    Birth 19 Apr 1929  [1, 2
    Gender Female 
    Residence 23 Jan 2018  Reno, Washoe, Nevada, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Religion Roman Catholic 
    Death 5 Jan 2020  [2
    Burial 24 Jan 2020  Our Mother of Sorrows Cemetery, Reno, Washoe, Nevada, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Person ID I35858  Dyal and Speckels
    Last Modified 19 Jan 2020 

    Family Werner William MARTINMAAS, Jr.,   b. 9 Oct 1927, Hand County, South Dakota, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 21 Dec 1992, Victoria County, Texas, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 65 years) 
    Marriage 7 Feb 1950  Hand County, South Dakota, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 4
    Children 
    +1. Living
    Family ID F24237  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 19 Jan 2020 

  • Notes 
    • “Mom was a South Dakota farm girl, who remembered pulling sunflowers from the cornfield with her siblings, and electricity coming to their rural area when she was a teenager. She had fond memories of life on the farm with her mother and father, Mathilda and John Koeck, and her brothers and sisters; Donald, Marion, Francis, Gayle, and Carolyn, who have all pre-deceased her. She was very proud of her family's roots in that farming community on the Great Plains. Her father was very protective and wouldn't allow her to go out with boys alone, but only as part of a group of youngsters. Luckily for us, she overcame this obstacle and met our dad at a dance, and promptly fell in love. They were married on February 7, 1950, and had thirteen children. And, yes! Trips to the grocery store for a family of fifteen were planned well in advance, the list was prodigious, and the grocery carts many, but mom managed. Keeping the house clean, cooking, baking, and doing mountains of laundry kept mom very busy. She loved to sew and made her own clothes and many of ours when we were children. There was always a tall stack of mending waiting for her by her sewing machine. She made the best bread, and her pies live in our memories. Mom liked to ride her motorcycle and had a lot of fun riding with our dad and their friends. She was a devout Catholic, with a lifelong devotion to the Rosary. She and dad saw to it that we went to Catholic schools and attended church each Sunday. Our family eventually left South Dakota to make a new home in Reno, Nevada, in the '70s. As her children grew up and started their own lives, mom was always there to take care of grandchildren and help in any way she could. Towards the end of her life, she benefited so much from attending adult day care at the Continuum in Reno.” [2]

  • Sources 
    1. [S1229] Ancestry.com, U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2, (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2010).

    2. [S3568] Thursday, January 9, 2020.

    3. [S3028] Monday, January 29, 2018.

    4. [S830] Ancestry.com, South Dakota Marriage Index, 1905-1914, 1950-2013 and South Dakota Marriage Certificates, 1905-1949, 2014-2017, (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005), South Dakota Department of Health; Pierre, South Dakota; South Dakota Marriage Records, 1905-2016.