Catherine S. Ericson, 85, of Wahoo, died Dec. 13, 2002, at the Haven House in Wahoo.

Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17, in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Wahoo, with the Rev. Kent Morse and Rev. Harlan Heier officiating. Interment will be in Sunrise Cemetery in Wahoo.

Visitation began Monday, but will also be held at the church from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Catherine S. Ericson was born June 4, 1917, in Fontanelle to Fred and Elizabeth (Newell) Jenkins. She graduated from Blair High School and then graduated from the Bishop Clarkson School of Nursing in Omaha.

She then attended the University of Minnesota, receiving her degree in public health nursing. She was a registered nurse and later received a Nebraska Funeral Director's license.

While she was employed by the Nebraska State Health Department in Wahoo as a public health nurse, she met Clifford Ericson, who was a funeral director in his family's business. Along with her husband, whom she married on April 8, 1941, she operated the Ericson-Hult Funeral Home. Mrs. Ericson was also employed as a nurse with the Wahoo Public School system.

While her husband served in the U.S. Army during World War II, she served as a Red Cross nurse at various bases where he was stationed. She later was the first Saunders County Blood Bank Chairman.

Still later, when her husband retired and before they moved to Lincoln in 1988, Mrs. Ericson operated the Saunders County Emergency Food bank for 3-1/2 years.

She was a long-time member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Wahoo, and was currently a member of the First Lutheran Church in Lincoln. She was a member of Chapter I of the PEO. She was a member and Past Matron of Stella Chapter 57 Order of the Eastern Star of Wahoo, which has now merged into Ceresco Chapter 198 of Ceresco. She was a member of the Past Matron's Club (order of the Eastern Star) and the American Legion Auxiliary of Wahoo. She was a former member of the Pythian Sisters of Wahoo, and the Daughters of the Nile in Lincoln.

She is survived by her daughter, Caryn Gekas of Lincoln; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Lynn and Janice Ericson, and Larry Ericson, all of Lincoln; six grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; three sisters-in-law, Lucy Jenkins of Blue Springs, Mo., Lorraine Caldwell of Omaha, and Milrae and husband, Donald Hengen of Omaha.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Clifford, on Dec. 4, 2002, and by a sister and brother.

Memorials are suggested to Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Wahoo and the First Lutheran Church in Lincoln.