Rowena Pine

Memorial services for Rowena J. Nehrbass Pine, 84, Lawrence, KS, will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at First United Methodist Church in Lawrence.  Private inurnment will be at Memorial Park Cemetery in Lawrence, KS.  She died on Friday, June 15, 2012.

Rowena was born on March 16, 1928 in Lawrence, KS the daughter of Herbert Christian and Rose Viola Hammig Nehrbass.

She lived in Lawrence most of her life.

Rowena began serving on staff of the First United Methodist Church in 1960.  She was consecrated as a Diaconal Minister at the First United Methodist Church in Lawrence.  She served in that capacity from 1981 – 1993.  She then accepted a position as the Chaplain at the Lawrence Presbyterian Manor from 1996 until she retired in 2004. She received COSROW recognition from the United Methodist Church.  In 2003, she was installed as Diaconal Minister Emerita of First United Methodist Church in Lawrence.

She was a member of the United Methodist Women, Phi Mu Sorority, Kappa Phi, (Legion of Light member).  She belonged to several bridge groups, and was a member of Chapter CW of the PEO Sisterhood.

She  married Kenneth C. Pine on January 28, 1949 in Lawrence.  He survives of the home.

Other survivors include one daughter, Penny Lynn Pine Hemphill, and husband, Charles, Lawrence; two grandchildren, Sarah Louise Taylor, and husband, Jeremy, Denver, CO, Samuel Hunter Hemphill, Lawrence, two step-great grandchildren; one sister, Joyce Nehrbass Elliott, and husband, Carl, Pasadena, TX; one brother, Carl Nehrbass, and wife, Helen, Sherman, TX, and a brother-in-law, Paul Pankratz, Midland, MI  Earlier, she was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Phyllis Pankratz.

The family suggests memorials in her name to the First United Methodist Church in Lawrence or to the St. Andrew’s Society and may be sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary.