Bertille Lucy “Bert” Zeltner, 96 of Everest, Kansas passed away on Thursday, April 20, 2017 at the Maple Heights Senior Living Center in Hiawatha, Kansas.

Mass of Christian burial will be Monday, April 24, 2017 at 10:30 A.M. at St. Mary’s Church at Purcell, Kansas with Rev. Benjamin Tremmel, OSB as celebrant. Interment will follow in St. Mary’s Church Cemetery. A parish rosary will be recited on Sunday, April 23rd at 6:30 P.M. in the Chapel of Arensberg-Pruett Funeral Home with visitation to follow until 8:00 P.M. Memorial contributions are suggested to the Bertille L. Zeltner Memorial Fund to be determined at a later date and may be left in care of the funeral home. Online condolences may be left at www.arensbergpruett.com.

Bertille was born on September 26, 1920 in rural Effingham, Kansas the daughter of the late Edward A. and Anna (Schmitz) Wohletz. Bertille graduated from St. Ann’s Parochial School and Atchison County Community High School in Effingham, Kansas in 1939. After graduation she went to work for J. C. Penney Company and also worked at a drug store.

She and Bernard Zeltner were united in marriage on February 19, 1941 at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Effingham, Kansas. Mr. Zeltner preceded her in death on August 13, 1989.

Bertille was a homemaker, a loving mother, a partner in farming with her husband and worked as a bookkeeper for the Huron Elevator for twenty-five years.

She was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Purcell, Kansas and was a member of St. Mary’s Altar Society. She loved her flowers, working in the yard, gardening, canning her produce from the garden, quilt making and sewing.

She experienced all the changes in life from the old wringer washing machines to making her own laundry soap, rationing of food during the depression to the joy of raising four children while married to a wonderful husband.

Suriviors include her daughters, Hazel (Frank) Wiederholt, Princeton, KS, Connie (Ronald) Torkelson, Everest, KS, two sons, Thomas Zeltner, Overbrook, KS, Richard (Mary) Zeltner, Huron, KS, two sisters-in-law, Mary Hopkins, Everest, KS, and Eileen Wohletz, Effingham, KS, nine grandchildren, twenty great grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren.

Bertille was preceded in death by her husband, Bernard of forty-nine years; a grandson, Raymond Bernard Zeltner, two brothers, Hardy and Walter Wohletz and an infant brother and sister.