Osage City - Erna Amanda (Utech) Peterson, age 106, died Monday March 10, 2025. Erna was born October 20, 1918, to William and Marie Utech on a farm near Ramona, KS.
William and Marie had 11 children, and 4 siblings survive Erna's death: William and Junior Utech of Topeka, KS, Dolores Siggs of Goddard, KS and Grace Raven of Marietta, GA, and many nieces and nephews.
Erna attended public school through the 8 th grade and in the fall of 1942 she and her sister Esther attended Brown-Mackie Business School in Salina.
Erna served during World War II in a civil service job at Herington Air Base for two years then transferred to Topeka for another 2 years at Forbes Air Base. In 1947, she began working for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in the accounting department for 5 years.
Erna met Marvin Peterson at a dance in Topeka and they married in 1952. Marvin was a farmer/stockman, thus Erna once again lived on a farm. Erna was a full partner with Marvin in their farming business, growing grain and raising cattle. Together they were very successful farmers and were able to enlarge their land holdings without outside jobs.
When Marvin and Erna retired in 1984, they rented out the land and continued to live on their farm. In their retirement they made improvements, building new fences, clearing brush and building new ponds.
Marvin passed away in 1995 and Erna was a widow for 30 years. Erna was very thankful for her many good Christian friends, her neighbors and all who were so helpful in providing her transportation to church, grocery shopping, going to doctors and running errands. All these generous, caring and wonderful people permitted Erna to stay alone at her farm and live on her own terms until her last few days. For this Erna was very grateful.
Funeral services for Erna will be at 11:00am on Monday, March 17, at the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Osage City. The family will receive friends from 10:00am until service time. Burial will be in the Osage City Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, sent in care of Feltner Funeral Home, 818 Topeka Avenue, Lyndon, KS 66451.