Grace Martha Bergman Kohake, 84, of Seneca, KS, died Tuesday afternoon, April 6, 2010, at the Nemaha Valley Community Hospital in Seneca.

Grace was born July 30, 1925 on a farm southeast of Baileyville, the fifth of eight children of Edward J. and Rose Hulsing Bergman. She grew up on the family farm and attended Sacred Heart School in Baileyville, graduating as Class of 1943 valedictorian. She attended Mt. St. Scholastica in Atchison until she was needed at home on the farm during World War II. She worked at the First National Bank of Centralia as a teller and personal secretary until her marriage.

On April 21, 1949 she married Leonard J. Kohake at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Baileyville. To this union were born seven children. They lived southwest of Seneca as a young couple. In 1952, they moved to the Lierz farm in the Ford Community southeast of Seneca, where they raised various crops and beef cattle. Grace volunteered at the Mission Center in Seneca from its opening in 1972 until she had to resign due to poor health in 2004. Grace was active in community and neighborhood projects. She was sewing and community leader of the Lakeside 4-H Club and was member of the neighborhood QAF Club since 1952. She created original quilt designs, and made many wooden rosaries and numerous banners for church events. She was a loving wife, mother and friend; who enjoyed life, her home, her garden and flowers, animals and the countryside.

She was a member of Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church, St. Ann’s Altar Society, where she was past president, the Hospital Guild Card Club, and a lifetime member of the Nemaha County Historical Society, all in Seneca; the Benedictine Oblates of Atchison; and the LCBA. She was a former member of Sacred Heart Church in Baileyville.

She is survived by her devoted and beloved husband of 60 years, Leonard; seven children, Jane (Don) Kreimer of Raleigh, NC, Thomas Kohake of Seneca, James (Carol) Kohake of Seneca, Patrick Kohake of Topeka, Kristine (Don) Haverkamp of Fairview, Gerard Kohake of Omaha, NE, and Linda Kohake of Seneca; a sister, Leina Mae Wasley of Livermore, CA; 13 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by sisters, Sr. Verita Bergman OSB and Rose Edna Haug; and brothers, Cletus, Merlin, Verner, and Meinrad Bergman.

Rosaries will be prayed on at 2 & 7 PM Friday, April 9, at Lauer Funeral Home in Seneca. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 AM Saturday, April 10, at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Seneca. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

Memorial contributions in Grace’s memory will be designated later, and may be sent in care of the family.