Elsie Marie Gaeddert Koehn

Elsie Marie (Gaeddert) Koehn (86) met her Savior and Lord face to face on April 14, 2025. She remained a devoted and steadfast servant of Jesus until the last moments of her life while fighting an aggressive form of bone cancer.

Elsie was born to Charles John and Mary (Zacharias) Gaeddert in Hobart, Oklahoma on December 23, 1938. She grew up on a farm outside Cordell, Oklahoma. She dedicated her life to Christ at a tent revival at the age of nine. Elsie's most cherished childhood years were spent at Oklahoma Bible Academy where she sang in glee club, choirs, and quartets. It was during these years she discovered her lifetime love of music. She earned her high school diploma and graduated in 1957 from OBA. Elsie married William "Bill" P. Koehn, the love of her life, on August 7, 1959 at Herold Mennonite Church in Bessie. Bill and Elsie had four daughters: Debra Koehn Zeller, Carol Koehn Stuckey, Donna Koehn Young, and Paula Koehn Maxwell. Their family moved several times between Cordell, Ringwood, and Meno, Oklahoma, Carrollton, Texas, Farmers Branch, Texas, and Enid, Oklahoma. In 1993, Elsie began serving as the pastor at Pleasant Plains Church of the Brethren in Aline, Oklahoma. For years, she served children and led them to Christ at Camp Spring Lake at Cordell. After Bill's death in 2007, Elsie sold their farm in Aline, Oklahoma, and moved to be closer to her daughters in Midwest City, Oklahoma. In January 2009, she began her leadership of the Southern Plains District for the Church of the Brethren. Elsie attended Bethany Theological Seminary to start her Education For Shared Ministries (EFSM). She retired in 2019 as district executive minister for the Church of the Brethren's Southern Plains District. Elsie worshipped at Country Estates Baptist Church with her family for many years. She ministered and led bible studies when she lived at Autumn House in Midwest City. Elsie shared the love of Jesus everywhere she went. She never met a stranger and had friends in nearly every state of our great nation. She loved drinking coffee, reading, listening to music, and talking with her family and friends. She was a devoted mother, an adoring grandma to eleven grandchildren and a loving great-grandma to sixteen.

Elsie is preceded in death by her husband, Bill of Helena; her daughter, Donna of Wilson, Oklahoma; her sister, Sue Rivera of Yukon, Oklahoma; her sister, Janie Cole of Cordell; her parents, and grandparents.

Elsie is survived by three daughters, Debra, Carol and husband, Jerry, Paula and husband, Kevin; son-in-law, Alan Young; her brother, Richard Gaeddert and wife, Trudy; her grandchildren and their spouses; great-grandchildren, and many beloved nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends.

Arrangements by

Lanman Funeral Home, Inc.

Helena, Oklahoma

www.lanmanfuneralhome.com

Facebook: Lanman Funeral Home Inc.