Ferne Isaac

Ferne Isaac died in Topeka, Kansas, on July 29th, at age 99.  She was the eighth and youngest child of William LaMont and Maud (Merrill) Bogenrief, who farmed near Northbranch, Kansas.  She attended the neighborhood school through the eighth grade and then worked her way through high school in Red Cloud, Nebraska.  During her freshman year, she served as nanny to a well-to-do family; subsequently, she worked at an ice cream shop and lived with a cousin and then with her aunt Lois (Merrill) Gillette.

Ferne graduated from Red Cloud High in 1936 and immediately began employment as a secretary at the Jewell County Courthouse in Mankato, Kansas.  She boarded with William and Bertha (Isaac) Mitchell, where she met Bertha’s nephew, Robert (“Bob”) Isaac.  They married in 1938 and lived the next two years mostly in Florida, where Bob trained and raced greyhounds.  In 1940, they returned to the Isaac family farm west of Mankato.  During all the years Bob and Ferne lived on the farm, Ferne grew a large garden every summer and canned enough produce from it to feed the family all winter.  She was known in the neighborhood as an accomplished cook, and neighbors who helped with haying and the harvest eagerly anticipated her noon meals.  Ferne was also an accomplished seamstress and embroiderer.  Her other hobby was reading, especially nonfiction.

In 1958, Bob and Ferne moved from the farm to Mankato and remained there until 2001, when they went to Topeka seeking medical treatment for Bob.  After he died in 2002, Ferne made Topeka her permanent home.  She was also preceded in death by her son Bradley and grandson Colin Moldenhauer.  She is survived by daughter Marla (Topeka) and son Barry (Cincinnati), as well as by four grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

Ferne was a member of the Harmony Methodist Church in Mankato for over 70 years and regularly attended Sunday services after moving to town.  Private burial will be at Mount Hope Cemetery.