Neva M. Funderburgh, 57, of Santa Barbara, California, formerly of Sabetha, Kansas, died Friday, March 24, 1989 in Santa Barbara after a long battle with cancer.

Neva Margaret Maelzer Funderburgh was born on September 21, 1931 to Clarence and Margaret Fraser Maelzer on the family farm near Centrailia, Kansas. Her family later moved to a farm five miles south of Sabetha, Kansas. Neva graduated from Sabetha High School in 1949. As a teen, she was active in the Rainbow Girls and was a member of the Sabetha Congregational Church.

Neva married her high school sweetheart Richard S. Funderburgh in May of 1949. They raised two children, Gina and Michael. Because of her husband’s profession as an air traffic controller with the U.S. Navy, and later a commerical airline pilot with United Airlines, the family lived in nine different locations around the U.S., including Hawaii, before settling in Santa Barbara in 1973.

Neva was an homemaker and expert seamstress and interior designer.

Survivors include her husband Dick of Santa Barbara; a son, Michael of Honolulu, Hawaii; a daughter, Gina of Santa Barbara; her mother, Margaret Maelzer of Seneca, Kansas; a sister, Shirley Scott of Denver; and a grandson Garrett.

A funeral service was conducted by Rev. Bob Williams. Burial was in the Centralia Cemetery in Centralia, Kansas. Pallbearers were George Ackerman, Glen Aeschliman, Gary Kiem, Harry Hennigh, Darwin Olson, and Jerry Lathop.

Memorials may be given for the First United Congregational Church of Christ in Seneca, Kansas.

Lauer Funeral Home in Seneca handled the Kansas arrangements.