Dorchester Times: Dorchester's Marlene Axline Passes At Age 87

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Dorchester's Marlene Axline Passes At Age 87

Marlene Joan (Sehnert) Axline was born July 29, 1931 near Dorchester to Harry West and Emma Catherine (Boshart) Sehnert. She passed away peacefully at the Wilber Care Center on February 1, 2019.

Marlene attended Dorchester Public Schools and graduated in 1948. She married her best friend, Harry Axline, on her 21st birthday, July 29, 1952. Marlene worked many years for the Dorchester Coop, where she was the bookkeeper at the elevator.

Harry and Marlene were the parents of Catherine Mary and James Harry. They taught their children by example that life isn’t fair or easy and that anything worth doing is worth doing right.

Marlene and Harry were inseparable from the beginning, with a love that was selfless and unconditional. They were married for over 65 years, and still always made each other laugh. Marlene and Harry’s life was one of service to their family and their community. They always supported one another. When Harry was on the Fire Department, Marlene would be answering the fire phone. When the Longenecker building was burning in Dorchester, Harry was fighting the fire and Marlene was feeding the fireman in backyard at the picnic table.

Marlene was well-known for being a phenomenal cook. Each year her family looked forward to her cookie and candy trays at Christmas. She always made beautiful afghans for her loved ones. Reading and music were both important to Marlene. She played the piano, organ, and accordion. She instilled the love of reading to her children and grandchildren.

As grandchildren were born, Marlene enjoyed spending time with them and preparing their favorite breakfast meals. The grandchildren played bingo and card games for hours.

Those left to celebrate Marlene’s life are her children, Catherine Axline Nitzel; and James and Tina Axline; her grandchildren, Reba and Hadley Cooksley, Josh Nitzel, Jonathan Axline, and Caden Axline; brother and sister-in-law, Jerry and Geraldine Sehnert; sister, Jane Hopper, and brother-in law and sister-in-law, Harold and Sharon Axline. Marlene is also survived by many nieces and nephews and friends.

Marlene was preceded by her husband, Harry Axline; sister, Frances Spacek, and her husband, Harry; brother, Ronald Sehnert, and his wife, Mary Ann; and brother-in-law, Ken Hopper. Also preceding her were sister-in-laws, Mary Ellen Klopp, and her husband, Bill; Ardis Jean Mortensen, and her husband, John; and Alta Mae Weber, and her husband, Ivan.

Services are scheduled for Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. at the Kuncl Funeral Home in Crete. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, February 5, 2019 from 5 – 7 p.m. at the funeral home. Interment will be at the Dorchester Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Jim Axline, Tina Axline, Caden Axline, Catherine Nitzel, Reba Cooksley, Josh Nitzel, and Hadley Cooksley. Honorary pallbearers will be Jerry Sehnert and Harold Axline.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be given to the Dorchester Fire Department and the Dorchester Legion August Vanek Post #264. Kuncl Funeral Home in Crete is handling the arrangements.

1 comment:

Lincoln Ave ResidentFebruary 3, 2019 at 9:13 AM
Dorchester loses another great community member. God bless the Axline and Sehnert families and RIP Marlene.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."