Myrtle L. Stutzman

Myrtle Luella (Loucks) Stutzman was born near Canton, Kansas on May 9, 1924, the daughter of Joseph S and Clara (Bitikofer) Loucks. The ninth of ten children, she grew up on the family farm and attended a rural school and Canton High School. She was graduated from Hesston Academy in 1948. She trained as a Licensed Practical Nurse through Kansas City (Missouri) General Hospital. She accepted Christ as her Savior at age 13, and was baptized at the Spring Valley Mennonite Church near Canton. She later transferred membership to the Pennsylvania Mennonite Church near Hesston, which relocated to Hesston as Whitestone Mennonite Church. Myrtle worked for several years at a nursing care center in Rittman, Ohio, and became involved in the work of the nearby Crown Hill Mennonite Church. In early 1958 she returned home to assist her mother following an illness. Not long afterward she began working at the Bethesda Home in Goessel, Kansas, during which time she and Orville Stutzman, the Business Manager-Administrator of Bethesda Hospital and Home, renewed a friendship begun more than a decade earlier at Hesston College and Academy. They were married on February 12, 1959, at Spring Valley Mennonite Church, and made their home in Goessel. In 1967 the family moved to Hesston, and Myrtle became deeply involved with a children‘s Wednesday evening Bible Memory Program. She and Orville were also active in the Newton, Kansas chapter of the Gideons International. In the early 1970s she returned to work as a Licensed Practical Nurse at Bethel Home for the Aged in Newton, retiring in1985. In July 2009 following an illness she became a resident of Schowalter Villa where she resided until her death. Survivors include husband, Orville, daughters Twila Chaloupek and Bonita (Gene) Stoddard, Carol (George) Donovan, and son Kent; seven grandchildren, Steven Stoddard and Kiran (Stoddard) Kuhn, Justin, Joel, Daniel, Ethan and Karissa Donovan, one sister, Vera Diener and many nieces, nephews and cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents, four brothers: Ernest, Phares, Vernon and Charlie; and four sisters: Mildred (Rhine Benner), Erma (Clyde Jantz), Marjorie (Knight), and Ethel (James Posar). Visitation will be Wednesday, July 23, from 6:00-8:00pm at Miller-Ott Funeral Home in Hesston. Memorial service will be held at 11:00am Thursday, July 24, at Whitestone Mennonite Church in Hesston. Interment at Eastlawn Cemetery near Hesston. In lieu of flowers memorials are suggested to Gideon's International or Schowalter Villa and may be sent in care of Miller-Ott Funeral Home, 107 S. Lancaster, Hesston, KS 67062

Myrtle L. Stutzman

May 9, 1924 - July 21, 2014