Alfreda Elizabeth Bacon, 96, of Kearney, Nebraska, formerly of Lexington, died Wednesday, January 27, 2010, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney.

She was born August 15, 1913, in Cozad, Nebraska, to Floyd and Nellie (Harrington) Roach.

Alfreda was a young girl when her parents divorced. Her mother remarried and they went to live on a WWI veterans’ land grant in Colorado. After two years digging for water and her stepfather dying her mother moved back to Cozad. Her youth was spent with relatives in Cozad and Orange County in California. Her mother married again and she moved to Lexington, Nebraska the last semester of her senior year of high school, this was where she met Carl Bacon. She graduated from Lexington High School in 1930. She pursued her nurses’ training at Presbyterian St. Luke’s in Denver, Colorado and after three years married Carl on December 18, 1934, at Lexington.

Life on the farm was not easy in the 1930’s. During WWII she helped Carl as they cared for an additional farm besides their own.

As her life went on, Alfreda became more involved in Christian Education. She conducted education workshops all over the state.

Personally, she loved ceramic painting and produced many fine pieces. She had a love for people and opened her home to exchange students, housed foreign guests, immigrants, and foster children.

She loved her church and her church’s camping program. She also adored her children and grandchildren and their activities, and her life with Carl on the Bacon family farm.

Alfreda moved to Kearney in 1997, after the passing of her husband Carl.

She is survived by three children:

David Bacon and wife Phyllis of Kearney, Nebraska

Barbara Reed and husband Dennis of Kearney, Nebraska

Jean Fujimura and husband Bob of Lodi, California

She is also survived by twelve grandchildren, twenty-eight great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.

Alfreda was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Carl in 1996; and stepsister, Patricia Rodebaugh.

The Family has honored Alfreda’s wishes that her body be cremated.

A Memorial Service Celebrating Alfreda’s life will be held Saturday, January 30, 2010, at 3:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Kearney, Nebraska with Reverend Gary Main officiating.

Inurnment will be held prior to the Memorial Service at Greenwood Cemetery in Lexington.

There will be no visitation.

Memorials are suggested to the First United Methodist Church Library in Kearney or Camp Comeca near Cozad, Nebraska.

Reynolds-Love Funeral Home in Lexington is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be directed to: reynoldslovefuneralhome.com