Aloha Zimmer

Services will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27, 2019, at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Cordova.  A graveside service will be held PRIOR to the service at 1:00 p.m. Saturday at Andrew Cemetery, Friend.  Visitation will be Friday, from noon to 8:00 p.m. with family greeting friends from 6:00-8:00 p.m. all at Lauber Funeral Home, Friend.  Memorials to St. John’s Lutheran Church, Cordova, or Warren Memorial Hospital Foundation, Friend.   

Aloha Baack Zimmer was born in Seward County, Nebraska to John and Clara (Hegeholz) Baack on January 9, 1924, and died surrounded by love on Thursday, July 18, 2019, at her home in Lincoln at the age of 95.    

Aloha was the youngest of six children.  Like many people of her generation, she learned responsibility and a sense of duty simply through day-to-day life on a farm.  Upon graduating from Seward High School in 1941 she planned to undergo nurse’s training but was too young for admission.  To bridge the time until then, she took a job at a farm service office in Seward where she met her future husband, Clarence Zimmer of Beaver Crossing, who worked there during semester break while studying at the University of Nebraska.  This was the start of a journey that she later remarked was wonderful and filled with incredibly rich experiences that she never expected.  Her interest in the world and in learning new things was apparent at a young age.  After graduating from Lincoln General School of Nursing in 1945 she applied for a job as a nurse with Standard Oil Company in Venezuela but there were no job vacancies at the time.  She embarked on a different adventure one year later when she married Clarence Zimmer on August 9, 1946.  They soon moved to the east coast where Aloha worked as a pediatric nurse in Patterson, NJ, while Clarence did his internship at Lincoln Hospital in Harlem, New York City. Their first child, John, was born in 1948 and the young family moved to Friend, NE, where John was joined by Sarah, Karl and Emily.  Aloha dedicated her life to her family, her church, her community and to doing good in the world, which included doing medical missionary work that took her and her husband to numerous developing countries.  Toward the end of her life, Aloha would comment on what a joyful, fulfilled life she had had.  This would be immediately followed by, “I should be doing something useful with my time.  We need to find a project that will help someone.”  A gentle person by nature, Aloha was always curious.  She had a way with words and a deft wit, and she loved flowers.  She was, to the bone, a grateful person. 

Aloha is survived by her children, John (Karna Cronn) of Lincoln, Sarah of Bonn, Germany, Karl (Deb) of rural Sprague, Emily of Lincoln, step-grandson, Troy Heinrichs of Lincoln, numerous nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Clarence Zimmer, siblings and spouses, Viola Baack, Les (Tillie) Baack, Elenore (Al) Poppe, Louise Baack and Loretta (Bernard) Niemann. 

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