Maxine Alice (Pepperl) Currey

Obit Maxine Alice Currey-101 of Hebron, NE

Kroll Funeral Home Hebron, NE 402-768-6165

Maxine Alice Currey, 101, of Hebron, passed away on Wednesday, December 8, at the Blue Valley Lutheran Nursing Home. She was born on February 13, 1920, in Burchard, Nebraska, to Clara and J. C. Pepperl. The family moved to Belvidere when Maxine was in the 7th grade, and she graduated from Belvidere High School in 1936.

As a child, her closest playmate was her sister, Betty, who was a year younger. They had a playhouse with child-size furniture that their father, who ran the Burchard lumberyard, had built for them. People often mistook them for twins, dressed in matching outfits that their mother made. In her teen years she helped out in her father's hardware store and lumberyard in Belvidere. When she was a high school junior she was named one of Nebraska's leading young citizens for 1935 by the World Herald and the American Legion. She remembered the dinner given in honor of herself and the other nine winners, the rousing ovation they received, and the dress that she wore, borrowed from her sister. New clothes were hard to come by in those Depression years.

Maxine taught in several rural, one-room schools after her high school graduation, barely older than some of her students. In 1938 she married Myron Currey, her high school sweetheart, and they had two children, Peggy Ann and Ted William. After her marriage she lived the life of a farm wife, cooking for hired men, hauling grain and fertilizer, and helping with irrigation. But she missed the retail business and interacting with the public, so she briefly worked part-time at the Hested's store in Hebron.

In the winter months, she enjoyed traveling with Myron to visit family in Arizona, California, Washington, and New York. After Myron's death in 1981 she moved from the farm to Hebron and took a part-time job at Western Auto. In town, she took part in Bible study groups and card clubs, and Sunday dinners with friends at nearby cafes. She was active in volunteer work and was one of the first Gray Ladies at the nursing home. One year she received the good neighbor award from an Omaha radio station, nominated by a neighbor. Her grandchildren remember her as a fun Grandma Max who baked cookies and played games with them, and cheered them on at sporting events. She continued to enjoy traveling, often with her daughter, to England, the Grand Canyon, Alaska, and other parts of the U.S. Maxine was a faithful, long-time member of the Belvidere United Church of Christ, where she served as Sunday school superintendent for many years. After the onset of the pandemic, she missed attending services there.

Maxine lived in her own home until last May, when she entered the nursing home. There she received attentive care from kind nurses and staff and, recently, from members of hospice. Everyone there said she was a sweetheart.

Maxine is survived by her daughter Peggy Meerse, her daughter-in-law Diane Currey, her sister-in-law Gladys Johnson, her grandchildren Elizabeth Frazier and husband Mike, Carmen Zalman and husband Mike, Richard Currey and wife Socorro, Katherine Meerse and husband David Woodard, and John Meerse and wife Stephanie, ten great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, her husband Myron, her son Ted, her sisters Betty Schafer and Patty Timmerman and their husbands, Myron's sisters Margaret Paul and Bess Harmon and their husbands, and Myron's brother Clinton Currey and his wife.

Maxine grieved the loss of many family members and friends, and although she missed them dearly, she maintained her positive and independent spirit into the last years of her life.

Public visitation will be Sunday, December 12, 2021 at Kroll Funeral Home in Hebron, NE 2-5 PM. Public burial will be in the Belvidere Cemetery at 2PM on Monday, December 13, 2021. Private family service will be December 23, 2021. Memorial in care of the family. Condolences may be left at www.krollfh.com. Kroll Funeral Home of Hebron, NE is in charge of arrangements.

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