Funeral Services For Lilly Ann Sage

Funeral services for Lilly Ann Sage, age 90, of Bloomfield, Nebraska will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday, August 20, 2016, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Lindy, Nebraska. Reverend Tom Jacobson will officiate. Graveside services will be 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Bloomfield City Cemetery in Bloomfield.

Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.

Brockhaus Funeral Home in Bloomfield is in charge of arrangements.

Lilly Ann died Tuesday, August 16, 2016, at Avera Sister James Care Center in Yankton, South Dakota.

Lilly Ann (Greckel) Sage was born to Otto and Martha (Kuhl) Greckel on December 22, 1925, on her parents farm place northwest of Bloomfield. Lilly Ann attended rural schools until old enough to attend high school, where she graduated from Bloomfield in 1943. During those years her parents rented a room for her to stay in town so she could attend. She went on to attend two years of college at Wayne State College where she got her teaching certificate and went on to teach in several country schools for nine years. “One by my folks, Greckel School, was her first year, Northview, Tewsville and one by Winnetoon.” She also spent one summer with her friend Helen Drosz working in Chicago at the Henry Valve Company as an assembler and seeing the sites.

Lilly Ann married Lawrence W. Sage on July 14, 1954, in Yankton, SD. They had two children born to this union: Bradley and Sandra. Over the course of those years, she was a homemaker, housewife, and mother. As her children got older, she was a teacher’s aide at the Niobrara school system for two years. Lilly Ann also worked at the Devils Nest Marina, Stupennagle egg factory, sold Avon, and Buhls Cleaners. She also did a lot of housecleaning for folks and helped care for some of the elderly who needed to go shopping or to the doctor.

Lilly Ann, Lawrence and the kids were blessed to be able to go on a lot of trips together to see family but also to do a lot of fishing. She and Lawrence retired and moved off the family farm to Crofton. After Lawrence’s death in 1999, she moved into the Crofton Housing apartments and resided there until her health required more assistance and she moved to Yankton to live at the Avera Yankton Care Center. On her 90th birthday, December 22, 2015, she moved along with 72 other residents out to new rooms at the Avera Sister James Care Center/ Majestic Bluffs campus. Her 90th birthday party was celebrated in the Mainstreet Pub on the new campus.

Her greatest joy was seeing and visiting with family and friends, but especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Lilly Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Lawrence; her parents; her siblings and some of their spouses, brothers, Clarence and Poody Greckel of Berthoud, Colorado, Galen Greckel and Vernon Greckel both of Bloomfield; her best friend and sister, Hazel and Harold Wiechmann of Rapid City, South Dakota; and her granddaughter, Megan Renae Sage.

​She is survived by her children, Brad and Cindy Sage of Niobrara, Nebraska and Sandi and Larry Parish of Yankton, South Dakota; seven grandchildren, Mike (Danielle) Sage of Bloomfield, Nebraska Alison (Jason) Shelangouski of Council Grove, Kansas, Brittany Sage of Omaha, Nebraska, Tom (Kelli) Broders, Brett Broders, Alan Broders of Freeman, South Dakota and Sara Broders and fiancé Dustin Dornbusch of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; four great grandchildren, Rowyn Shelangouski of Council Grove and Brogun, Kendall, and Kinsley Broders of Freeman; sisters-in-laws, Laura Lou Greckel of Bloomfield, Dorothy (Don) Benck Bloomfield, Shirley Swatzke of Crofton, Nebraska, Noreen Greckel of Wahoo, Nebraska, and Lucille Sage of South Sioux City, Nebraska; and a host of cousins, nieces and nephews.

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