Lillian Galle
Lillian Frances Galle was born March 5,
1933, at the Galle household in Valley Center. She was delivered by
her aunt, Helena Schmidt, who was a nurse. She was the fifth of the
seven children of Oswin Karmie Galle and Sara Schmidt Galle. She grew
up in Valley Center and, with her family, attended church in Wichita.
Their dad built an extra bench in the back of their 1934 Ford so that
they could all ride together from Valley Center to the Lorraine
Avenue Mennonite Church every Sunday (and more), where they regularly
participated in the life of the church.
She graduated from Valley Center High
School in 1950 as valedictorian of her class. After working a year at
St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, she enrolled in Bethel College in
North Newton in the fall of 1951. During her sophomore year, she was
chosen by the Bethel College Student Council to represent Bethel at
the Teacher's Training College at Wupperthal, Germany, under the
Foreign Student Exchange Program. She spent the 1954-55 academic year
at Wupperthal and returned to Bethel after that, graduating in the
spring of 1957.
Lillian spent the next four years in
Wichita as a social worker before going on to the University of
Chicago to gain her master's degree in Social Work. Her schooling was
paid for by the Illinois Children's Home and Aide Society, with the
proviso that she work for them after graduation for at least a
two-year period. She worked for them a substantially longer time,
quitting that job to move back to Newton in 1976 to accept a social
work job at Prairie View Hospital. From that time until April 1998,
she worked at a variety of social work jobs in the Newton area,
culminating in becoming Head of the Social Work Division of the newly
organized Newton Medical Center when Axtel Hospital and Bethel
Deaconess Hospital merged. While in this position, she was named
Kansas Medical Social Worker of the Year in 1997. She resigned her
position at Newton Medical Center in 1998.
After her resignation, she spent a
large portion of her time in a variety of volunteer activities in the
Newton area, working at the Bethel College Library Archives, helping
organize the Life Enrichment program at Bethel College, working at
the Newton Public Library, assisting the Big Brother/Big Sister
project and a number of other places. In addition, she began to care
for her older sister, Lorraine, who had been diagnosed with
Parkinson's.
The two of them had always enjoyed
traveling together (three trips to Europe), especially visiting their
brothers and sisters and the children of their siblings.
Lillian died on Sunday (Feb. 24, 2019),
following years of loving care from the staff of Presbyterian Manor.
She was preceded in death by her
parents, Oswin and Sara (Schmidt) Galle; sisters, Marianna (Gene)
Hall, Kathryn (John) Vogt and Lorraine Galle; and her brother, Karmie
Galle.
She is survived by two siblings,
Darlene (Ted) Wynn and Omer (Zona) Galle; sister-in-law, Edna Galle;
and many nieces and nephews, whom she and Lorraine had always doted
on.
A memorial service will be held to
celebrate Lillian's life at 3 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 28, 2019) at
Petersen Funeral Home Chapel.
Memorials are suggested to The
Mennonite Library and Archives at Bethel College and may be sent in
care of Petersen Funeral Home. www.petersenfamilyfuneralhome.com.
