Josephine B. “Josie” Spielman, 90, of Seneca, KS, died Friday, October 25, 2002, at the Nemaha Valley Community Hospital at Seneca. She was transferred there from Country View Estates care home in Seneca where she had been a resident since January of 2001.

She was born August 17, 1912, on a farm in the Coal Creek Community south of Centralia, KS, the daughter of Bernard and Elizabeth Von Schmede Stegeman. She attended the Sunflower School near her home. Later she lived with her brother Frank at St. Benedict, KS, and attended school there for two years.

On January 5, 1935, she married Anthony F. “Tony” Spielman at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Redemptorist Church in Kansas City, MO. Her husband Tony preceded her in death on September 13, 2001. They lived and farmed in the Centralia community until they moved to a farm south of Oneida, KS, in 1949. In 1958 they moved to a farm west of Seneca. “Josie” started working in the kitchen and as a waitress at the Gilford Hotel in 1953. In the late 1960s she began work as a cook at Crestview Manor care home in Seneca and retired in 1982.

She was a member of Sts. Peter & Paul Church and St. Ann’s Altar society at the church in Seneca. She belonged to several social and card clubs in the Oneida area.

Survivors are a son, Donald Spielman of Prairie Village, KS; two daughters, Nancy Severin of Topeka and Shirley Beets of Kansas City, MO; 13 grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; 14 step-great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.

Besides her husband Tony she was preceded in death by a daughter, Betty Fisher on August 2, 1995; a granddaughter, Kimberly Brown in 1958; four brothers, Frank, Henry, Louis, and Ben Stegeman; and seven sisters, Katie Becker, Clara Burns, Rose Olberding, Elizabeth Denison, Ann Gunn, Mary Holthaus, and Johanna Stegeman.

Mass of Christian burial will be 10:30 AM Monday at Sts. Peter & Paul Church in Seneca. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Rosaries will be prayed at 2 & 7 PM Sunday at Lauer Funeral Home in Seneca.

Memorials may be given for Sts. Peter & Paul School, and sent in care of the family.