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Kenneth M. Koch, 81, of Seneca, Kansas, Texas, died Sunday shortly
after arrival at the Nemaha Valley Community Hospital. His death
was caused by a series of strokes.
He was born September 23, 1918, at Summerfield, Kansas, the son
of John and Marcella Cook Koch and one of 14 children. He moved
with his family to Frankfort, Kansas, where he attended schools.
He went to Freeport, Texas in 1939 where he was a hoisting engineer
for various contractors. In 1965 he became business manager for
International Union of Operating Engineers, Local Union No. 450,
in Freeport, Texas, for 14 years. In 1979, three days before his
planned retirement, he suffered a massive stroke and aneurysm.
He served in the 3rd Armored Division
of the US Army in Central Europe as a half-track tank driver from
March of 1943 to November of 1945. He was in the Battle of the Bulge,
Normandy, and Ardennes. He was wounded in action December 18, 1944,
and received a Purple Heart.
On March 29, 1941, he was married
to Marjorie Zettle of Seneca at Orange, Texas. They lived in Freeport
and Van Vlick, Texas until her death March 17, 1992. He and his
wife owned and operated a restaurant-steakhouse "Ken-Mar" on highway
35 in Freeport. In 1944 he sold all his property and moved to Seneca
to live with his wife's sister, Hazel Hoffman.
He was a member of the Catholic Church
at Bay City, Texas. He was a member of the Earle W. Taylor Post
#21 of the American Legion and the Seneca Memorial Post #7458 of
the Veteran's of Foreign Wars both at Seneca.
Survivors are three sisters, Leona
Keiffer of Marysville, Kansas, Thomasine Cope of Thornton, Colorado,
Kathryn Thomson of Wichita, Kansas, and his sister-in-law, Hazel
Hoffman of the home in Seneca.
The mass of Christian burial will
be Wednesday June 14 at 10:30 A.M. at Sts Peter & Paul Church in
Seneca. The burial will be in the Seneca City Cemetery. There will
be a Prayer Service at the Lauer Funeral Home in Seneca on Tuesday
at 7 P.M.
Memorial contributions may be given
for Sts. Peter & Paul School, Seneca, Kansas 66538.
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