Obituary

Newton Kansan, Thursday, June 24, 1982


FLORENCE BESSMER DIES AT AGE 104

Miss Florence Bessmer, 104, retired business woman and benefactor of the Florence Bessmer Children's Wing at the Newton Public Library, died Wednesday at the Bethel Home for the Aged where she had resided since 1965.

Services will be conducted at 3 p.m. Friday in the chapel of the Petersen's Funeral Home with the Rev. A. James Cox, chaplain of the Bethel Hospital and Home, officiating. Entombment will be in Greenwood Abbey.

She was born Feb. 20, 1878, in Freemont, N.Y., the daughter of John G. and Rosine Kautz Bessmer, and was christened Rosine Florette Bessmer. When she started to school, her first teacher recorded her name as Florence, the name she has used since that time.

In March 1882, her family migrated to Kansas by railroad, arriving in Newton which was at that time the end of the line for the railroad. The family lived on a farm northeast of Newton homesteaded by an uncle.

After graduating from Newton high School in 1900 she completed the normal (teachers) course and received her certificate to teach in 1902. After a short period of substitute teaching, she decided she decided she did not want to teach and returned to the farm. In 1908 the family moved to 1211 N. Main in Newton, where Miss Bessmer still was living when the flood of 1965 caused her to be moved out and she has been at the Bethel home since that time.

In 1922, Miss Bessmer's interest in the stocks became her life work. After losing her sight in 1956, she continued to manage he own business interests until late 1976, having memorized the names and numbers of her stocks and bonds, when they were to mature, when the coupons were to be clipped and she knew just how much interest she had coming.

Because of her love for little children, on her 101st birthday she fulfilled a longtime dream when a foundation was established in her name to aid the Newton Public Library in developing programs for children. On April 10, 1980, the groundbreaking for the new Florence Bessemer Children's Wing took place.

There are no immediate survivors. She was preceded in death by one brother Charles W., and three sisters Louise Ann Egy, May Elizabeth Handke and Nora Gilbert.