Mary Ellen Andersen Gillming, 72, of North Platte, formerly of Broken Bow, passed away Sept. 21, 2013, at Great Plains Regional Medical Center.
Mary Ellen was born Dec. 21, 1940, to Frank and Eva (Schmitz) Loeffelholz at Kearney.
Mary grew up in the Kearney-Riverdale-Amherst area where she attended country school, as well as the Hopewell Country School, graduating from Kearney High School in 1959.
Mary left home and married Don Barta in June 1959 and to this marriage five children were born, Alice, James, Thomas, Darlene and Dianna. While Mary was raising her children, she worked at the Ordinance Plant in Grand Island and Becton Dickinson in Broken Bow. In 1970, she moved to Broken Bow and married Alfred Chris Andersen. He had three children, Edward, Daniel and Dorothy. While living in Broken Bow, she worked at Master Cleaners, Sandhills Manor, Broken Bow Wholesale, Daylight Donut Shop, Custer School, Melham Medical Center and Casey’s. She also did sewing and alterations for people in the community as well as for Cinderella Shop and J.M. McDonalds. Mary and Chris managed the Omaha World-Herald in the area, where all eight of their children had a paper route. At times

Mary would hold down two jobs to help support her family.
Chris passed away in December 1986. Mary continued to work and live in Broken Bow, retiring in 1998.
In 2005, she met and married Richard Gillming and moved to North Platte where he had two children, Brenda and Mark.
Mary enjoyed spending time with her family and grandchildren and her many friends. She also enjoyed playing cards, domino’s, chicken foot, bowling, sewing, crocheting, canning, helping with 4-H projects, camping and fishing. She loved cooking for her family and trying new and different recipes.
She was a member of the VFW Auxiliary.
Mary is survived by her husband, Richard, of North Platte; her sons, James Barta, of Broken Bow, Thomas Barta, of Nenzel, Edward Andersen, of San Antonio, Texas; her daughters, Alice (Rollin) Tobey, of Kearney, Darlene Barrera, of Long Beach, Calif., Dianna (Kenneth) Berns, of Broken Bow, Dorothy (Mike) Andersen, of Junction City, Kan.; her daughter-in-law, Donna Andersen, of North Platte; her grandchildren, Zachary (SallyJo) Barta, of Cody, Cora and Dillon Barta, of Nenzel, James, Jordan (Shantel) Barta, all of Broken Bow, Lizbeth (Gabriel), Brittney, Nathan, all of Huntington Beach, Calif., Jacob Berns, of Broken Bow, Kayla (Brian) Berns, of Hastings, Joshua and Andrew Andersen, of Junction City, Kan., Leah and John Edward Andersen, of San Antonio, Texas; her great-grandchildren, Gavin, Jozelyn, Korbon, Navia, Brylee, Qualea, Leyton; her step-children, Brenda (Mike) Veith, of North Platte, Mark (Amy) Gillming, of Goodland, Kan.; five step-grandchildren; and five step-great-grandchildren.
Memorials are suggested to the family to be designated later.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 26, at the United Methodist Church in Broken Bow with Pastor Todd Karges and Pastor Gene Goben officiating. Interment will be at the Broken Bow Cemetery. Visitation will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 25, with family greeting friends from 6-8 p.m., at Govier Brothers Mortuary, which is in charge of arrangments.