Dorothy Unverzagt

Obituary

Dorothy Darlene Huckfeldt-Thieman- Unverzagt

Dorothy was born on July 16,1920, in Gasper County, Nebraska near Eustis and Elwood to Orvin and Katie Huckfeldt. The Huckfeldt’s farmed with horses and raised cattle and hogs. Dorothy and brother Melvyn picked up corn cobs at night to start fires in the wood burning stoves. In 1929, Orvin and Melvyn went to Wyoming to homestead about 30 miles west of Yoder and planted wheat. When the family moved to Goshen County Wyoming in the spring of 1930, they found all the wheat had frozen.

The family moved to Veteran, Wyoming in 1935, where the family farmed beets and Dorothy and Melvin attended high school. Dorothy graduated in 1940.

Dorothy married Lloyd W. Thieman in November 1940 in a double ceremony with brother Melvyn and Madge Lee.

In 1942, Lloyd and Melvyn were called to serve in the army to fight in World War II. Lloyd died in Germany in November of 1944.

While the guys were in service Dorothy and Madge moved to Grand Island, Nebraska and worked in a 2000lb bomb plant for 85 cents an hour until the news of Lloyd’s death.

Henry (Hank) Unverzagt met Dorothy at a dance. They had known each other while the family lived in Veteran, Wyoming. They married February 4, 1946, in Torrington, Wyoming. They moved to Hay Springs, Nebraska shortly after and settled on Mirage Flats Irrigation Project.

Where they homesteaded and farmed corn, beans, wheat, alfalfa, and sugar beets.

Hank and Dorothy had four children Katheryn, Thomas, Sandra, and Michael.

Dorothy remembered attending county school and walking a mile or more to and from school, where they lived along a rock ridge where the rattlesnakes lived and learned to kill them.

She remembered when her father Orvin got real sick from a ruptured appendix and the doctor and nurse came and operated on him on the dining room table.

As a girl Dorothy remembers everyone cooked on coal burning stoves for both heat and water. They had a clothes washer that sat on the stove and had to turn by hand to clean the clothes. She also remembers only using brooms. In her words, “I don’t remember vacuum sweepers until I left Wyoming.”

Our beloved mother was called home by the Lord on February 12, 2024, at the age of 103 years old.

Dorothy was proceeded in death by her parents Orvin and Katie Huckfeldt. Her husbands Lloyd Thieman and Hank Unverzagt, and brothers Melvyn, Donald, James, Kenneth, William (Bill), and Granddaughter Lori Lynn Hale.

Dorothy is survived by her children, Katheryn Sweat, Thomas and Susan Unverzagt, Sandra Shanks, Michael and Von Unverzagt.

Dorothy is also survived by her grandchildren Bryan & Laura Hale, Cory & Stefanee Hale, Brett & Melody Hale, Callie & Joe Fournier, Lance & Molly Unverzagt, Paul Unverzagt, Staci Vicars, Lindsay Crozier, Rebecca

Unverzagt, Amber Unverzagt, Crystal Simanek. Along with numerous great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.