Doris Gail Johring

Doris Gail Wehrly was born June 22, 1918, to Asa Charles and Marie Liebig Wehrly in Davenport, Nebraska. She passed away at age 105 in the Pathways Hospice facility in Fort Collins with her family at her side. She was the second of four children- Bill, Ruth, and Richard. The family moved by railroad to Holt County and settled in rural Atkinson. She attended “country school” until second grade when her father transferred her to Atkinson public school. Bill and she drove a horse cart the three and one-half miles to school. She remembered many details of that experience. She and Bill were great friends as they were close in age. Ruth and Doris shared a lifetime of friendship in their adult years. Richard was born with handicaps and was loved by everyone. Doris loved artwork and had many abilities in that field. She sewed her family’s flour or chicken feed sack clothing in wartime. Then when fabric became available, she embroidered, smocked, crocheted, and used lots of lace. She learned cake decorating at the state fair and loved her beautiful house, yard and large vegetable and flower garden. She fed her family year-round from that garden. She developed a love of reading and read her Bible through several times. She found foreign language intriguing and always desired to learn more. In her senior year, she was asked to substitute for teachers who needed time off. This was in addition to her own full schedule of classes which included preparatory classes for her teaching certificate. She graduated in 1936 as valedictorian of her class. She taught in rural schools, grades K-12 in Pleasantview and Opportunity areas. She had many fond memories of time spent with her beloved students, saying “I loved them and think they loved me!”. Robert and Marvin Young and Clayton Goeke, her former students, still live in the community. She walked one and a half miles to school every day in all seasons, only canceling school when none of her students could get there. The school’s one room had no electricity, had heat from a coal stove and an outdoor hand pump for water. She read Zane Grey’s family history to the older students in the wintertime for two successive years at their request. The Laddie books by Albert Payson Terhun were also favorites. Holidays were made much of by a school program, handmade decorations and candy making at school {and allowed to eat it!}. They had a very spindly Christmas tree with lots of tinsel. She and Melvin F. Johring were married June 22, 1939, and began a series of moves to rented ranches. They suffered a lifelong sorrow in the loss of their first-born son Jerry at 8 months of age. With their meager funds they donated Bibles in his memory. They were eager to learn who may have come to the Lord because of those Bibles. In 1947 they purchased the Simonson homestead north of O’Neill, Nebraska, where they raised their three children and where Kent now ranches. The famous blizzard of 48-49 dumped 100 inches of snow and they were snowbound for weeks. In the final 9 years of life, Doris lived in Colorado with daughter Rosemary and family. The family was grateful to spend time and hear the many stories of yesteryear. Although she loved her family in Colorado, and they shared many happy times, her heart remained in Nebraska with the ranch, her home and family there. Doris’s faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior secured her hope of eternal life as she often said, “In God’s heaven where He has gone to prepare a place for us”. Her service to others in the church body guided her life’s direction. Doris is preceded in death by her parents, husband, infant son, daughter Gail {Daniel} Odegaard, sister Ruth, brothers, William and Richard and many friends and relatives. Doris is survived by two children, Rosemary (Andrew) Stoddard of Fort Collins, Colorado and Kent Johring of O’Neill, Nebraska; six grandchildren- Melanie Stoddard, Amanda {Daniel} Filler, Sarah {Ryan} Stewart, Abigail {Clint} Novak, Seth {Brooke} Forwood, and Emily {Chris} Liepe-all of Colorado; 21 great grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, 2 sisters-in-law and one brother-in-law. Memorial Services will be held at 10AM, September 9, 2023, at the First Christian Church, O’Neill, Nebraska. Interment will be at Prospect Hill Cemetery, O’Neill. Online condolences can be communicated at www.goesfuneralcare.com Just as Doris’s faith and hope were based on the life, death and resurrection of God’s son, Jesus Christ, memorials will be used to share that hope with others.

Doris Gail Johring

July 27, 2023