Maxine Violet (Meyer) Brockhoff went to meet her Savior early May 29, 2018 at Hiawatha Community Hospital after a brief illness. A kind, strong and independent 90-year-old, she lived until her death on the family farm she loved, even mowing her grass a few days before entering the hospital.

Maxine was born July 9, 1927 near Girard, Kansas to Rudolph and Anna (Miller) Meyer and graduated from Girard High School in 1945. She worked for the Kansas Employment Secretary Division and then later as a secretary at McClure, Webb & Oman, a law firm in Topeka, Kansas. A devout Lutheran her whole life, she attended St. John’s Lutheran Church while in Topeka. Maxine was also active in Walther League, a Lutheran young adults group, where she became a state officer and met her future husband, Stephen Brockhoff of Fairview, Kansas.

Steve and Maxine were married in Topeka on April 21, 1957 and then moved near Steve’s birthplace between Hiawatha and Fairview where they farmed and raised four sons. Maxine, who was always known a great cook and an exceptional pie-maker, ran the Powhattan Café in Powhattan, Kansas seven days a week from 1985 to 1995. She continued catering local events even after leaving the Café.

Maxine was active at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Fairview, Kansas and served in a number of church and community roles including LWML, Dorcas Society, 4-H and others. Maxine in her later years became a prolific quilter who donated more than one hundred quilts annually to charities including Lutheran World Relief and the Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry in Kansas City, Missouri and others. She wore out multiple sewing machines making them, almost always using donated fabric, and thousands of people as near as Brown County and as far away as Africa have found warmth on a cold night under a quilt that she made.

Maxine was preceded in death by her husband, Steve, on August 4, 2008; her brothers Milbourn, Clarence, Aldine, Irwin and Wallace and her sister, Edna. Survivors include her four sons: Kevin and wife Karen of Dallas, Texas; Gary and wife Debra of Peachtree City, Georgia; Jeffrey and wife Leslie of Powhatan, Kansas; and Wallace and wife Anne of Linwood, Kansas. Maxine is also survived by her grandchildren (Zackery, Erika, Johanna, Evan, Marie, Eliza and Lucien), step-grandchildren Joshua Hayes, Zachary Shipman and Sydney Smith, and many other relatives, friends and neighbors with whom she maintained regular correspondence and connections.

Visitation will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 1, 2018 at Chapel Oaks Funeral Home, 124 S. 7th St., Hiawatha, Kansas 66434.

Services to Celebrate Maxine's Eternal Life will be at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 2, 2018 at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Fairview, Kansas, with interment next to Stephen to follow at Mt Hope Cemetery, Hiawatha, Kansas. 

Memorials contributions are suggested to St. Paul Lutheran Church, Fairview, Kansas and SmileTrain www.smiletrain.org., sent in care of the funeral home.