Funeral services for Esther Anna Marie Paulsen were held Monday, April 21, 1997, at 10:30 a.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, Manning, Iowa. Pastor Curt Dwyer officiated the service with Carlys Stribe as organist. Interment was held in Manning City Cemetery, Manning, Iowa, with Bill Bruhn, Leland Kienast, Kenneth Jensen, Claus Bunz, Laverne Olsen and Milo Clark as casketbearers. Visitation was held Sunday afternoon, April 20, 1997, after 3:00 p.m. Memorials may be made to Zion Lutheran. Church, Manning.

Esther, daughter of John and Charlotte Otte Sunderman, was born August 14, 1907, in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Esther moved to Clarinda, Iowa, with her parents and eight brothers and sisters when she was four years old. Esther graduated from Clarinda High School and then attended and graduated from Drake University in Des Moines. Esther taught school in Irwin, where she met and married Ted Paulsen on December 27, 1930. To this union was born one child, Charlotte.

Esther, her husband, and daughter moved to Manning in 1944. She was a homemaker, taught school, and was a member of Zion Lutheran Church, where she taught Sunday School and worked on Braille. In 1976 Esther took over as manager of the Golden Rule Store where she remained for eight years until her retirement in 1982. She will be remembered by her family for being a loving wife, mother and grandmother.

Esther entered the Manning Plaza Nursing Home in 1993, and died there on Thursday, April 17, 1997, at the age of 89 years, 8 months, and 3 days.

Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband in 1967; a son-in-law, Jerome Callanan in 1967; one grandchild, Jeffrey; four brothers: Dolph, Dan, Casper and Glen Sunderman; three sisters: Josephine Henneman, Mable Steeve, and Clara Steeve, all of Clarinda.

Esther is survived by her daughter, Charlotte, and her husband, Ronald Kocourek, of Burr Ridge, Illinois; six grandchildren: Timothy, David, Kevin, John, Susan and Robert; nine great-grandchildren: Lee, Kyle, Ryan, Stephanie, Michael, Christopher, Jaclyn, Emily and Hannah Elizabeth; a sister, Elsie Muller, of Clarinda; other relatives and friends.