Visitation was one hour prior to the service.

Brockhaus Funeral Home in Bloomfield is in charge of arrangements.

Irene Mary Utecht (nee Brockhaus) died Monday, April 22, 2024, at Plainview Manor in Plainview, Neb., in hospice care after a brief illness; she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in mid-December of last year, which left her partially paralyzed with progressive aphasia. She was 97 years, 11 months, and 7 days of age.

Irene Mary Brockhaus was born on the 15th of May 1926, at Columbus, Neb., the daughter of Frank J. Brockhaus and Lucille R. Eisenmenger Brockhaus. She was baptized, received her First Holy Communion, and was Confirmed into the Catholic Faith at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Humphrey. She attended grades 1-12 at St. Francis Catholic Schools in Humphrey where she graduated class Valedictorian in 1944. Following her high school graduation she worked as a nanny for Oscar Geist, a pharmacist in Norfolk, Neb.

On the 9th of January 1954, she married Donald A. Utecht, of Bloomfield, at St. Francis Catholic Church in Humphrey, Neb. Following the wedding services at the church, a small wedding dinner and family reception was held at the bride's home on the family farm south of Humphrey. The newly married couple farmed north of Bloomfield, Nebraska. She was a devoted member of St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Bloomfield; she was also a member of the St. Andrew Ladies Altar Society and taught CCD classes for many years following the closure of St. Andrew’s grade school in 1967.

She was equally devoted to her husband and their three children. In addition of her many duties as a farm wife, she would always find time to have a freshly baked cake or cookies ready by the time her kids returned from school. In addition to baking, Irene enjoyed sewing her own clothing, making patchwork quilts, embroidery,

Irene Utecht

reading, and doing crossword puzzles. She also raised a large garden, canning and freezing most of the food she prepared for her family; she also raised hundreds of chickens for eggs, geese and ducks for meat. She'd sell fresh eggs for 25¢ a dozen in the 1970s and when the laying hen no longer did her job, Irene would butcher the old hen and make soup with chewy dumplings for supper that night. She also canned fruit and made jams and jellies from the large fruit orchard on the family's farm.

Irene remained actively living on the family farmstead for several years after the death of her husband in 2016, moving into a small apartment in Bloomfield only a few years ago after calling it quits with a push lawnmower in the summers and shoveling snow in the Nebraska winters.

Irene was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Lucille Brockhaus, of Humphrey; two brothers, Thomas “Tom,” of Humphrey and Gerald “Jerry,” of Madison; her husband, Donald Utecht, in 2016; and her only daughter, Mary Irene Clayton, formerly of Columbus, Neb., and more recently of Bloomfield.

She leaves to mourn her death two sons, Theodore D. Utecht, M.D., of Eureka, Calif., and Timothy D. (Karen) Utecht of Plainview, Neb.; grandchildren, Thomas Utecht, Adam (Kimberly) Utecht, Nicholas (Gina) Utecht, Kate (Mark) Koehler, and Kinzie (Dylan) Rockwell; eight great-grandchildren with a ninth due in July; two sisters, Louise Schroeder of Lincoln, Nebraska and Joan Lindhorst of Lindsay, Nebraska; and one brother, Leonard “Lenny” Brockhaus, of Norfolk, Neb.