The funeral service for Lois Kohler of Albert Lea will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at the United Methodist Church, Albert Lea. Visitation will be one hour before the service. The Rev. John Bromeland will officiate. Memorials to the United Methodist Church are preferred.
Lois Kohler passed away peacefully on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009, at St. John’s Lutheran Home in Albert Lea where she had been a resident since 2004. She would have been 95 years old on Feb. 22.
Lois Marvyl Esse was the last survivor among six children born to Bernhard J. and Margaret (Berg) Esse in Hayward Township, Freeborn County. Her early days were spent on the family farm and in Albert Lea, where she graduated from high school in 1931. She attended college in Iowa and worked as a librarian in Albert Lea, a career she continued at the Naval Training Center, Maryland, and in Illinois.
She married Royden B. Kohler in 1946. He then attended college and became a minister in the United Methodist Church, serving in Maryland congregations and as district superintendent. Lois offered strong support in his career and actively participated in church activities. The couple were foster parents to a number of young people, including Peggy Saah, who stayed with them from 1961 until her marriage in 1967.
On a vacation in Greece in 1974, Roy died suddenly. Lois then moved to Florida where her parents and a brother had located. She served from 1975 to 1980 with the Women’s Division of Board of Global Ministry at Nashville, Tenn., and first learned to drive a car. In 1980 she volunteered to go to Africa as a missionary. She was at Jos, Nigeria, until February 1984 when she expected to return to the United States, but at age 70 agreed to assist the treasurer in Liberia. Africa. She returned to Albert Lea in August 1987 to be near a sister, Ruth Oiseth, and a niece.
Lois was a frequent presenter at conferences around the country sponsored by the United Methodist Church Women. Along with a brother and cousins and their wives she visited the ancestral home of her family in Balestrand, Norway. She loved the friendship and support that came through her membership in the Albert Lea United Methodist Church.
Lois is survived by two sisters-in-law: Harriet (James) Esse, of Spring Grove, and Joanne (Paul) Esse of Houlton, Maine, along with Virginia Esse (widow of cousin Laverne), of Austin. Other survivors include the children of Lois’ sister, Beryl Howland (Elaine Chartier and husband Dick, of Mesquite, Nev.); of sister Ruth Oiseth (Jane Oiseth, Albert Lea, and Michael Oiseth and his wife, Lon, of Bloomington); of brother Lester Esse (Linda Poyorena and Leann Speshyock, both of California), of brother Paul Esse (Christine Betts), and of brother James Esse (Loren Esse and wife Cathryn, Des Moines, Iowa; Carolyn Olson, Spring Grove; Jon Esse, Virginia, Steven Esse and wife Denise, Citrus Heights, Calif.; Alan Esse and wife Jane, of England) as well as numerous grandnephews and grandnieces. Lois also had a wonderful continuing relationship with her foster daughter Peggy (with husband Joe Saah, of Raleigh, N.C., and their two sons, J. Royden Saah and Daniel J. Saah). So many of us will long remember our beloved Lois’ profoundly positive spirit.