Dorchester Times: Roger Beranek Passes At 74; Memorial Service Is Saturday

Friday, April 17, 2015

Roger Beranek Passes At 74; Memorial Service Is Saturday

A memorial service for Roger Dean Beranek of Dorchester will be held at 2 p.m. this Saturday, April 18, at the Dorchester United Methodist Church with Aseracare hospice chaplain, Shari Lagemann officiating. Burial of ashes will be in the Dorchester Cemetery.

There will be visitation tonight, Friday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. with family greeting relatives and friends from 6-8 p.m. at Lauber-Moore Funeral Home, Friend. Memorials are directed in care of the family for later designation.

Roger Beranek was born February 20, 1941 in Friend to Libby Sally (Bruha) and Benjamin F. Beranek. He passed away this past Wednesday, April 15, at the Friend Manor at the age of 74 years 1 month and 26 days. He attended school in Dorchester and graduated with the Class of 1959. On March 30, 1974, in Crete at the Grace United Methodist Church, Roger married the great love of his life, Janie Annetta DeWitt and to this union seven children were united: Debbie, Diane, Brenda, Kevin, Donna, Dan and Kenny.

Together they made their home in Dorchester. Roger was employed at Crete Mills as a corn miller for 42 years, retiring in 2006. He was a member of the National Rifle Association and Arbor Foundation. Roger served his community for several years as Volunteer Fireman. In his spare time, he enjoyed gardening, hunting, fishing and trapping and sharing the outdoors and his garden produce with family and friends. He was also a member of the Brewcrew tank racing team for 7 years that regularly competed in the Polar Bear tank racing from Mullen to Thedford on the Loup River.

Roger took pride in the accomplishments of all his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Roger also enjoyed polishing rocks and always asked his family to bring back rocks from wherever they went. He enjoyed his many “AG Tours” with family and friends.

He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Janie of Dorchester, children and spouses, Debbie and Brad Sharp, Park Rapids, MN, Diane and Bill Velder, Dorchester, Brenda and Tim Fisher, Longmont, CO, Kevin and Tracy Beranek, Milford, Donna and Dave Parks, Dorchester, Dan and Kelley Burianek, Pleasant Dale, 19 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, sister and brothers-in-law, Pat and Andy Jacox, Garland, Ron Blecha, Minden, brothers and sisters-in-law, David Beranek, Long Beach CA, Don and Sue Beranek, Snohomish, WA, Dan Beranek, Apache Jct., AZ, Arlene Beranek, Springfield, OR, many nieces, nephews and a host of other relatives and friends.

Roger was preceded in death by his parents, a son, Kenny Beranek in 1991, grandson, Charles David Parks, brother, Benjamin F., sisters, Shirley Johnson and Ramona Blecha.

Online sympathy notes may be left here.

1 comment:

AnonymousApril 21, 2015 at 8:45 AM
A great loss to the community, his family and friends. And now Al and Roger can be together again.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."