Birth: 1900
Death: 1998
Location: Lot 64, Section 6, Outside the Old Cemetery
WOOD RIVER – Esther M. Filkin, 97, of Wood River died Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1998, at St. Francis Skilled Care.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Apfel Funeral Home in Wood River with Rev. Curt Holzworth officiated. Burial will be in Wood River Cemetery.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
Mrs. Filkin was born March 20, 1900, in Plymouth, W. Va., to William C. and Myrtle O. (Jones) Bennett. Her mother married August F. Bloom in 1902 . The family lived on a ranch in Banner County un til 1905, when they moved to a farm north of Wood River.
She attended District 33 School and completed the eighth grade. In the 1920s, she raised geese for show purposes, winning top prizes at national fairs and expositions.
She married Royce R. Filkin on March 11, 1919. He died on August 22, 1919.
She married William W. Filkin on July 26, 1923. They moved to Wood River in 1940. He died on April 11, 1965.
Her hobbies were her cats, gardening and hooking rugs. She worked in the cafeteria at Cornhuskers Army Ammunition Plant.
Survivors include one son, Wayne of Grand Island; five daughters, Royce Gilbert of Costa Mesa, Calif., Arline Otto of Grand Island, June Smith of Garden Grove, Calif., Joy (Mrs. Gerald) Holtzen of Aurora and Helen (Mrs. Gerald) Keen of Wood River; 15 grandchildren; 39 great-grandchildren; 23 great-great-grandchildren; and one sister, Charlotte (Mrs. Virgil) Burmood of Lincoln, Calif.
In addition to her husbands, she was preceded in death by one son, one daughter, one granddaughter, two great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandson, three brothers, and one sister.