Catherine Amman

Lila Esther Catherine Amman was born September 15, 1923, the daughter of John (Jack) and Lillian Seyfert Burkhart. She died Wednesday, January 20, 2010, at Eventide Lutheran Home in Denison, Iowa, at the age of eighty-six.
Catherine was born at home in West Plains, Missouri. In December 1944, at the age of 20, she was baptized and confirmed by Reverend Harm at St. Paul Lutheran Church in West Plains. She graduated from West Plains High School in 1941. She worked as a stenographer in a jelly factory in Mountain View, Missouri, and also as a seamstress in West Plains making military uniforms.
On April 6, 1943, she was united in marriage to Arden Amman at the United Methodist parsonage in West Plains. While Arden was overseas during World War II, Catherine worked for the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri, making engine parts for navy fighter planes. She was one of 23,000 workers who produced the Double Wasp "C" engine, the most powerful in combat in WW II. By 1945 they were producing over 2,000,000 horsepower in engines. The employees gave generously to the Kansas City War Chest and to the American Red Cross, and were awarded the coveted "E" award for exceptional performance. The airplane factory was made into a car factory after the war.
With the war over, the couple made their home on a farm in Jackson Township near Vail, Iowa, in 1946. They moved to a farm in Stockholm Township near Boyer in 1950 for one year and then moved to farm in East Boyer Township, south of Denison, until 1956, when they purchased the family farm in Goodrich Township, northwest of Denison. The couple was blessed with the birth of four children. In the fall of 2005 Catherine moved from the farm to the Reed House. Then on June 4, 2007, she entered Eventide Lutheran Home.
Catherine was a devoted and loving mother and a loving grandmother and great-grandmother who enjoyed working in vegetable and flower gardens, sewing, bird-watching, traveling, and playing pinochle with family and friends. She cherished visits from the neighbors and exchanging food items with them. She was a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Denison and of the VFW Post 2504 Womens Auxiliary.
Catherine was preceded in death by her parents, Jack and Lillian Burkhart; her husband, Arden; her parents-in-law, John and Gracie Amman; two brothers, Johnny and Charles Burkhart; one half-brother, Herman Quik; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Evan and Helen Andersen; and brother-in-law, Ray Lapel. Survivors include two sons: Charles Amman of Denison; David Amman and his special friend, Julie of Minneapolis, Minnesota; two daughters: Marilyn Moore and her husband, Fred of Omaha, Nebraska; Linda Preul and her husband, Allan of Denison; nine grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren; two sisters: Jessie Ziolkowski of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Helen Ecker of Sandwich, Illinois; three brothers: Jackie Burkhart of West Plains, Missouri; Royce Burkhart of Elgin, Illinois; George Burkhart of Chicago, Illinois; one sister-in-law, Hazel Lapel of Denison; and a host of other relatives and friends.