Paul L. Roth

Paul Roth, 83, of Kearney died Saturday, January 27, 2018 at St. John’s Good Samaritan Society in Kearney. Funeral services will be 10:30 am Thursday, February 1, 2018 at the Kearney E-Free Church with the Rev. David Oldham officiating. Burial will be at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Axtell, NE. Visitation is 5:00 to 7:00 pm Wednesday at the O’Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral Home in Kearney. Memorials are suggested to the Kearney Evangelical Free Church or to Samaritan’s Purse. Condolences may be shared online at www.osrfh.com. Services are entrusted to O’Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral and Cremation Services. Paul Leland Roth was born July 9, 1934, to Chris and Lelah (Henry) Roth on a farm south of Oxford, Nebraska. His education began in a rural school northeast of Oxford. The spring of 1940, the Roth family, now including 2 sisters, Ilo Rita and Dorla Dee, moved to the Axtell, Nebraska area where they farmed in several places before buying the present farmstead north of Axtell. Paul helped on the farm at a very early age, neighbors telling of seeing him drive a tractor and wagon load of grain into Axtell around the age of 6. Paul began his education in a rural SCHOOL NORTH OF Oxford, Nebraska, then a rural school north of Axtell until the students were moved to the Axtell Community Schools where he graduated in 1954. He participated in football, basketball and track in addition to helping his parents with twice daily milking chores and farm work. As a youth Paul was confirmed in the Axtell Trinity Lutheran Church, where he accepted Jesus as his Savior. Following graduation from High School, he worked for a Loomis farmer for two summers. On December 30, 1956, Paul and Carol Persell of Holdrege, Nebraska were married in the Methodist Church in Holdrege and began their life of farming south of Odessa, Nebraska on a farm that was once a Pony Express station. He was drafted into the army in August 1957, taking basic training at Fort Carson, Colorado. Following an additional nine weeks of advanced training, Paul was transferred to Munich, Germany where he served in the 24th Infantry Division, 127th Airborne Battalion, Engineering Battalion. He was a demolition expert, heavy equipment operator and Company Supply Clerk, also earning the Expert Rifle and Good Conduct medals. His wife, Carol, joined him in Munich in 1958 until his honorable discharge the summer of 1959. After returning to the Odessa farm they moved March of 1961 to the Roth home place north of Axtell. A daughter, Kristi Renee was born in 1959, and a son, Douglas Dale was born in 1961. They lived beside Paul’s parents in a garden level home until his parents moved to Kearney, Nebraska in 1978, at which time Paul and Carol completely remodeled the original house. Paul’s carpentry skills enabled them to fulfill the house plans he and Carol designed. Paul attended Ag school under the auspices of the U.S. government and worked several winters using his skill as a welder at Allmand Brothers of Holdrege, Nebraska and at Axtell Co-op filling station. He enjoyed playing slow pitch softball with the Emmaus EFC team in the Funk Church Leagues and enjoyed hunting deer and coyotes with his son and friends, collected memorial guns and enjoyed pool games with friends and his son at the Axtell Town Hall in the winter time. While son Douglas was obtaining his pilot’s license, both Paul and Carol also took flying lessons. Paul was thrilled to solo, but was unable to continue to get his license. Paul was a life time member of VFW Axtell Post 7935, Axtell, Nebraska, consolidated into the Heartwell Post 5537, Heartwell, Nebraska, December 2016. As long as he was able, he served on the Axtell Honor Guard for Memorial Day services. Camping with family and friends was considered his “vacations” and later, nation-wide trips, several on AMTRAK trips were enjoyed by Paul and Carol. Joining Paul with the family farms, son Doug also established an aerial spraying business on the home farm, with Paul helping load planes and flagging as needed. Later they formed a trucking corporation, delivering seed corn from Iowa to farmers in several states as a winter occupation. He and his family enjoyed attending his son’s sprint car racing circuit in Kansas and Nebraska. Paul retired in 2000, enjoying helping his son on the farm when health allowed and rebuilding antique FarmAll F 20 tractors, which he drove in area parades pulling a flatbed with family on board. In 2008 he was severely injured in a fall from a farm loft and his health began to fail. Paul was a member of the Trinity Evangelical Free church of Holdrege, later joining the Emmaus Evangelical Free Church of Funk, Nebraska where he served 32 years of a deacon, trustee, Sunday School Superintendent, active in church upkeep and also moved pastors to new ministries. He transferred membership to the Kearney Evangelical Free Church in 1994. In 2010 Paul and Carol moved to Kearney, and despite having to leave the farm for health reasons, from the beginning he felt “perfectly at home” from the day he moved in. Paul enjoyed people, joining other farmers to help neighbors in need, and after retiring, meeting with a great group of men from many occupations every morning at Kearney McDonalds for breakfast and the current topics. He faithfully prayed for his family, friends and beloved country. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, daughter Kristi Newman, son Douglas Roth, seven grandchildren-Kacey Sunblade, Salyce Sunblade, Ashley (Roth) Bower, Dustyn and Christopher Roth, great grandchildren, two sisters, Rita (Harold) Carlson of Idaho, Dorla (Larry) Lindstrom of Elm Creek, NE, two sisters-in-law-Wanda (Neil) Fisher of Washington, Janice Colgan of Kansas, nieces, nephews, cousins and many friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, Chris and Lelah Roth and parents-in-law, Dale and Mona Persell and brother-in-law, James Colgan.

Paul L. Roth

July 9, 1934 - January 27, 2018