Dorothy A. Coday, wife, mother of eight, grandmother of 13, and great grandmother of three, devout parishioner of Sacred Heart/St. Mary’s Catholic Parish, died March 12. She was 88.
Dorothy’s children and grandchildren remember her as a strong, faith-filled woman who instilled in them a love of family and faith. She inspired her children with her steadfastness.
Dorothy married Michael Albert Coday in May 1951 in St. Joseph Church, Atkinson, Nebr. They would go on to raise eight children living first in Atkinson where Michael managed the Standard Oil gas station and the A&P grocery story. They moved to Norfolk, Nebr., in 1963, where Michael owned and operated a Western Auto Store with his good friend Harold Grof, who was married to Dorothy’s sister Josephine. Later Michael would join the Gibson Discount Store chain that would take the family from Norfolk to Columbus, Nebraska; Chickasha, Okla., back to Columbus and again back to Norfolk in 1978 where they would remain.
In Norfolk, Dorothy worked as parish secretary at Sacred Heart/Saint Mary’s Parish and then as school secretary and librarian at Sacred Heart Grade School until her retirement. Dorothy, a lifelong Catholic, was active in parish life as a member of the Altar Society and the Catholic Daughters. For more than 15 years she organized the rosary prayer chain for the parish.
Dorothy was born to Alouis and Juila (nee Wiechman) Wewell in Rock County, Nebr., on Nov. 22, 1930. Julia and Alouis (known by all as Olie) raised two boys and four girls on a hay farm southeast of Newport, Nebr. Patricia Barnes of Omaha is the last survivor of this close-knit family. Dorothy remembered as a young girl that the family would ride to Newport in a horse-drawn wagon on Saturday evenings to watch movies projected on a side of building and drink milk shakes made from the family’s dairy cows.
The family moved to Atkinson, Nebr., for Dorothy to attend St. Joseph Catholic High School from which she would graduate in 1948. She would recall that she first met Michael after the end of World War II when he delivered news to the Wewel family about their sons return from the war. At that time Michael’s parents had a telephone in their home but the Wewels did not. Michael and Dorothy would meet again while Dorothy was a nursing student at Mount Marty College in Yankton, S.D.
Michael preceded Dorothy in death in June 2006. Together they raised eight children: Father Timothy Coday, a Missionary of the Precious Blood, of Liberty, Mo.; Thomas (and Mary) Coday of Fremont, Nebr.; Gerard (and Maureen) Coday of Liberty, Mo.; Michael A. (and Christine) Coday Jr. of Howells, Nebr.; Dennis (and Jaratsri) Coday of Liberty, Mo., Nancy (and Alex) Schulte of Omaha, Nebr., Kathy Coday of Norfolk and Carol (and Jeff Jones) of Norfolk.
A visitation and rosary for Dorothy will be held March 18, 4-7 p.m. at Home for Funerals, 1203 W. Norfolk Ave., Norfolk. Her funeral Mass will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church 202 S. 5th Street, Norfolk, March 19 at 10:30 a.m. Her eldest son, Fr. Timothy, will preside. Interment will be at St. Joseph Cemetery in Atkinson, Nebraska, with the date and time yet to be determined.
Dennis Coday 