Joseph Thaler, Lake Andes

Joseph Gene Thaler, 83, Lake Andes, died Monday, March 4, 2013, at Select Specialty Hospital, Omaha, Neb.

He was born on Oct. 10, 1929.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at First Lutheran Church, Lake Andes. Burial will be in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, Armour.

Visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. today at Koehn Brothers Funeral Home, Lake Andes.

A luncheon will be served at the church in Lake Andes following the burial.

Gene was born on a farm near Tyndall to Joseph and Mary (Slopak) Thaler.

He enlisted in the Army in 1948 and then was drafted back into the Army to serve in combat in the Korean War.

Gene graduated from Southern State Teachers College with a degree in elementary education.

He taught elementary school for 41 years. Seventeen of those years he taught in Lake Andes and 11 years in Morse Bluff, Neb. He also taught in Wagner, Montrose and Osmond, Neb.

He served in the South Dakota National Guard for more than 20 years.

He was united in marriage to Alice Heims in 1955.

To this union were born Patrick (Kathy), West Fork, Ark.; Daniel (Becky), Pickstown; Susan, Lincoln, Neb.; Paul (Karen), Pasadena, Calif.; and Steve (Lorraine), Los Angeles. He had nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Alice Thaler died in 1980.

In 1986, he was married to Barbara Chandler Simpson and inherited two stepdaughters: Jeannie Simpson (Jim), Fremont, Neb.; and Marcy Simpson Houseman (Jimmy), Lake Andes.

His stepdaughters couldn’t have loved him more were he their own father.

Gene retired from Morse Bluff Elementary School in 2000.

He loved riding his motorcycle, traveling, taking care of his yard, his cats and was an avid reader.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Alice Thaler.

He is survived by his sister, Caroline, Scotland; children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and his wife of 27 years, Barbara Chandler Thaler.

Tags: lake andes, obituaries