Orvel C. Christensen
OGALLALA —Orvel C. Christensen, 87, a lifelong resident of Keith and Custer Counties, died Nov. 30, 1998 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, losing his life to complications of diabetes which had held him hostage for a generation.
He was born March 18, 1911, in the town of Finchville, to Martin and Maria Rookstool Christensen. He spent his childhood years in that region and dropped out of school in the tenth grade to support his siblings. 
He spent the next ten years working with his mother raising a family of ten children, two of whom, Ova and Valaire, died as toddlers.
Mr. Christensen married E. Fae Christensen at the Courthouse in Stapleton on February 1, 1939. In sixty more days they would have been married sixty years. In the spring of 1941 the family of three moved to Los Angeles. 
After six weeks of training he went to work at North American and Douglas Aircraft for six years. During this period of time he taught himself to operate a milling machine and made tools and dies working with only his imagination and creativity. 
When his draft number came up his foreman refused to release him. 
In 1946 the family, now numbering four, moved to Keith County where he spent the remainder of his life as a farmer. He was always mindful of his responsibility to leave the land in better shape than he found it.
For ten years, Holstein cows, milking parlors, and a Grade A Dairy Barn kept him busy. In addition, he served on the Board of the Nebraska Dairymen's Association.
One of the dreams of his life was to own a section of irrigated land and that dream was fulfilled when water was located on some dry land he had bought on the High Divide. 
Now, a rainbow-hurling albatross took the place of worrying over drought and watching the skies for rain.
For another decade he also took on the operation of Paxton Fertilizer, selling anhydrous ammonia throughout the area. Ill health forced his retirement in 1979.
He became a member of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran on March 14, 1948. Active in this community, he was Chairman of the Paxton Village Board for five years, on the school board of District No. 29 for twelve years, 
a volunteer member of the Paxton Village Board for five years, Past-president of the Lion's Club; and a Volunteer delivering Meals-on-Wheels for nine years. For these activities and others like them, AkSarBen recognized him as a Good Neighbor in 1986. 
He was always on call, honest to a fault and delighted in giving little children a quarter just to see the smile on their faces.
Survivors include his wife Evelyn Fae Christensen of Paxton; a daughter, Bonnie (David) Dudley of Batavia, Ill.; two sons, Keith (Susan) Christensen of Parker, Colo. and Glen (Carolyn) Christensen of Kearney; 
a sister, Vila Odermott of Hiawatha, Kan.; two brothers, Leno (Ida Mae) Christensen of Corvallis, Ore. and Erman (Doris) Christensen of Topeka, Kan.; Also five grandchildren, Karen, Steven, Andrea, Scott, and Jared.
Two brothers and four sisters preceded him in death, one of whom, Valaire he saved from drowning when he found her floating face-downward in a horse tank.
Funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Friday, at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Paxton, with Rev. Doniver Peterson officiating. Burial in the Paxton Cemetery.
Memorials have been established to the Diabetes Foundation and the Salvation Army.
Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Draucker Funeral Home in Ogallala. The family will greet visitors from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.