Rosalie M. Hamm

Rosalie M. (Novak) Hamm, age 85, of Fairbury, Nebraska, formerly of Daykin, peacefully entered into eternal rest and into God’s loving arms on February 12, 2015, with her five children at her side. She was born on June 12, 1929 in Fillmore County to Wenceslaus (Jim) and Emma (Lorenz) Novak.

Rosalie was raised in a faithful Catholic household and graduated from Daykin (NE) High School in 1947. She attended Fairbury Junior College and later worked in Lincoln as a secretary before her marriage to Darwin Amos Hamm (Tobias, 1950) in a double wedding ceremony with her sister Adelade and husband Joseph Gudlin.

As a devoted Mother, this union was blessed with five children, Lyle, LaRae, Lorenz, Lymon, and Lance lovingly raised in Daykin. She later married Walter Endorf. Rosalie enjoyed baking, flower and vegetable gardening, sewing, quilting and birding. She worked as a phone operator, waitress, Meridian bus driver, babysitter and home health aide. She also enjoyed preparing food for Elgert’s Supper Club and Kenny’s Lounge. She was a member of the Daykin Lady’s Extension Club, St. Mary’s Altar Society and the Daykin Women’s Birthday Club.

Preceded in death by her parents, sister Adelade Gudlin, sister and brother-in-law Bette and John Steppanchuk, brother-in-law Roland Hummel, and husbands Darwin Hamm and Walter Endorf.

She is survived by her daughter LaRae and Dennis Endorf of Fairbury, sons Lyle and Deborah (Dickson) Hamm of Montgomery TX, Lorenz and Dana (Pletcher) Hamm of Lincoln, NE, Lymon and Shelly (Vostrez) Hamm of Fairbury, NE and Lance and Kim (Oldham) Hamm of Kingsville, TX. Also survived by sister Mary Hummel of Fairbury and brothers Henry Novak of Palm Springs, CA, Fred and Carlene Novak of Lincoln, NE, Jim and Norma Novak of Chandler, AZ, Frank and Connie Novak of Falls City, NE, grandchildren and great-grandchildren Mike and Libby Endorf, (Colin, Jack, Bennett), Jessica (Endorf) and Steve Miller (Barrett), Jamie (Hamm) and Kerry Egan, Tyler Hamm, Mikaela (Hamm) and Tyler Rosener (Hartley), Morgan Hamm, Sadie Hamm, Sabrina Hamm, Sophia Hamm, and numerous nieces and nephews. Rosalie is also survived by longtime and loyal friend Rosemary Houck and recent loving caretaker Gwen Schwab.

Gerdes-Meyer Funeral Home in Fairbury is in charge of arrangements. Funeral services to be held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Tobias, Nebraska, on Monday, February 16, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. Celebrant will be Fr. John Birkel of St. Michael’s Catholic Church (Fairbury) and concelebrants will be cousin Fr. Bernard Lorenz of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church (Imperial), & Fr. Craig Doty of St. Joseph's Catholic Church of Tobias. A Rosary will be held at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, February 15th at Gerdes- Meyer Funeral Home in Fairbury with family visitation starting at 3:00 p.m. Memorials to Family’s Choice in lieu of flowers.

ROSALIE MARIE (NOVAK) HAMM
A TRIBUTE TO MOM
By Lance D. Hamm

Thank you all for being here today to help us celebrate the life of our Mom, Rosalie Hamm.
Thank you Fr. John Birkel, Fr. Craig Doty, Fr. Tom Wiedel, and Fr. Bernard Lorenz for your lovely service today. For your information, Rosalie was a Novak, her mother Emma was a Lorenz, and Fr. Bernard Lorenz from Imperial, Nebraska, is Mom’s cousin.


ROSALIE NOVAK HAMM
Our Mom lived a long life, 1929 to 2015,
She was one tough Lady,
In some aspects, others had more,
But she was very rich in Love and Family.

Standing here today, I won’t be able to do justice and tell all the stories and experiences that brought her happiness. So let me touch upon a few.

A couple of years ago, sitting at the supper table with my family, my daughter Sabrina asked the question, “Dad, when do you know you made it in life?” I cannot remember the answer I gave her then, but over the years I have often thought about that question. Basically, I think we would all agree that if you are happy in your life, then you have “made it.”

Some people find happiness in far off places, some in monetary wealth, and others in the toys they own. Our Mom found happiness in a small home and in a small community, spending time with the family and friends she loved, also enjoying the birds, the pets, the plants, sewing & gardening, and preparing food, especially Czech food, that made her happy.

Rosalie “made it” early in her life, in Daykin and later in Fairbury.

As the baby of the family, I have many fond memories growing up in a small house with 4 siblings, Mom and Dad, and only 1 bathroom. It was tight, but we had each other. Many memories involved the garden. Mom loved to work in the garden. I remember her spending many hours snapping green beans on our back steps under the shade tree and we would be right there with her.

Mom loved all of us kids, she was proud of every one of us. She knew that her hard work paid off in the end, and that each of us siblings has been given more opportunities in life than she was ever given. It’s because she has always been there, through the ups and downs of growing up, showing us the value of hard work, we could always count on Mom being there. She was there to help us learn how to drive, there during Lyle’s college years, there for all of our marriages, sewing LaRae’s wedding dress and many other dresses, there to bring sack lunches to Lorenz while working on the railroad near Endicott, there to help celebrate Lymon’s ownership of Fairbury Glass, and there for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, birthdays included

Jessi, LaRae’s daughter, has told the story how her grandma would teach her the finer things in life. While traveling many hours on the road in Walt’s cattle trucks and on the back roads, Grandma taught Jessi how to squat and pee and to be sure to check the pant legs afterward for any possible mess, or should I say miss. It was a ritual for my daughters Sadie, Sabrina, and Sophia, to play “go fish” with their Grandma, most of the time sitting on grandma’s lap or all getting up on her recliner. Sadie has fond memories of Grandma showing her the cardinals and blue jays on cold mornings and her sprinkling bird seed on the front porch for them to eat. And most recently, this past year, we know Mom loved her newest great-grandchild, Hartley. As she looked forward to the weekly visits, no matter how bad the day was going, Mom would always perk-up when Hartley entered the room.

Mom “made it” in life because as the Matriarch of the Hamm family, she was loved so very much by her kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Personally, I knew Mom loved following along with my military career from the very beginning; by taking the phone call from the Navy to accept my university scholarship; to pinning on my Navy pilot wings in Kingsville, Texas; to sailing onboard an aircraft carrier with me in the Pacific Ocean. That’s what I love most about Mom, she was always there – always there for all of us.

As we all know, happiness is a process, it comes and goes in cycles – sometimes Mom was in the pursuit of happiness. If any of you know some of the Hamm boy’s stories, then you know that Mom quite often was in the pursuit of happiness. I will not tell those stories today, but let me tell a story LaRae told me how Lyle and I, from Texas, would send Mom a lot of flowers and potted plants for her birthdays and Mother’s Day. While living at Fairbury Gardens, Mom started complaining about a frog croaking at night!?!?!? LaRae would reply with something like, “OK Mom, whatever you say.” Mom later moved to the Heritage Care Center and LaRae was thinking that the complaining about the frog would stop with the move, but Mom again started to complain about some croaking at night. “OK Mom, whatever you say.” While living at these two residences, Mom’s complaining lasted a couple of years, off and on. Sure enough, one more mini rose bush was delivered to Heritage from Texas and Mom continued to complain. This rose bush did not survive. LaRae took the planter home to re-pot it, and lo and behold, when LaRae dumped out the dirt, there was a little green frog. LaRae….don’t be surprised if YOU start to hear some croaking at night.

Lorenz told me a story about Mom seeking happiness. Lorenz remembers how Mom loved her flowers and vegetable gardens. We always had a large garden filled with sweet corn, green peppers, potatoes, radishes, carrots, lettuce, peas, green beans, and tomatoes. Only Grandma and Grandpa Hamm’s garden could compare in size in Daykin. One summer afternoon while shooting fireworks, one of Lorenz’s bottle rockets started the straw mulch on fire in the garden. Our neighbors to the west, Harry and Hulda Niederklein’s garden hose wasn’t long enough and before we got our hose out there, someone had called the Daykin Volunteer firemen. We had the fire out before they arrived. Mom was not mad about the fireworks. She was not mad about the fire. She was not mad that the firemen were called out. Mom was mad because she lost six of her tomato plants.

Lorenz told me another story, this time about Mom’s happiness of driving the school bus. Lorenz remembers how Mom drove the Meridian school buses for many years during the 1970’s and loved doing it. She received one of the first new buses with an automatic transmission. It was big, beautiful, and bright yellow and she loved to keep it looking good. The only trouble was, to keep that big, beautiful, bright yellow bus looking good, it took us Hamm kids HOURS to wash and clean it.

Not only did Mom love driving the bus, but she loved all the children too, and especially….yours truly. While driving the kindergarten bus or van, I would travel with her after school to drop off all the other 5 year-olds. We would end up near Tobias when the last kid got off the bus. It was at that time when either Mom or I would reach over to the glove box and pull out a sack of white-powdered donuts for me to eat on the way home. None of the other kids ever found out about the snacks in that hiding spot. FYI, true story, just a couple of weeks ago, my youngest daughter, Sophia, and I finished off a whole bag of white-powdered donuts in two days before her Mom and sister returned from a trip. Sophia is also the baby of the family and we both love white-powdered donuts.

ROSALIE NOVAK HAMM
Mom lived a long life, 1929 to 2015,
She was one tough Lady,
In some aspects, others had more,
But she was very rich in Love and Family.

She made it in life!
We love you, Mom.