By HDN Staff
RUDYARD Marieann Catherine (Wendland) Vavruska, 81, died at a Chester rest home March 24, 2000 of natural causes.
Funeral Mass will be 2 p.m. Tuesday at Our Lady of Ransom Catholic Church in Hingham. Burial will follow at the Hingham Cemetery. Vigil prayers will be 7 p.m. Monday at the church.
Vavruska was born June 4, 1918 in Rudyard to Margaretha Hartman and Andrew Wendland. She grew up on the family farm north of Rudyard and received her formal education there. She worked the farm with her family and eventually purchased some interest in a place southeast of Hingham.
She married Jacob Vavruska at Hingham on Oct. 4, 1949. They lived and farmed at Hingham. She continued to live in Hingham following her divorce.
Vavruska was a member of Our Lady of Ransom Church and the altar Society in Hingham.
She was an avid gardener and did a lot of quilting and sewing. She also enjoyed bird watching, reading and solving jigsaw and crossword puzzles. She enjoyed playing cards, especially pinochle and solitaire and was an accomplished cook.
Her health began to fail 2 years ago, so she moved to a Chester nursing home.
Vavruska was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Harlan and Phillip Wendland, and five children: Agnes, Bernard, Clarence, Doris and Edith.
Survivors include daughters, Fern Ergenbright of Hingham, Hazel May of Rudyard, and Gail Sharp of Kalispell; son Irvin Vavruska of East Helena; sisters, Dorothy Ferda and Janet Lehman, both of Hingham; seven grandchildren, one great-grandson, and numerous nephews and nieces.
Memorials will be given to the Hi-Line Health Foundation and the Liberty County Nursing Home in Chester.
Arrangements are by Rockman Funeral Chapel of Chester.
