Alma J. Holthaus, 98, Kelly, passed away on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at Life Care Center in Seneca.

Alma was born on August 3, 1921, the daughter of Frank and Mary Stegeman Haverkamp, on the family farm ½ mile west of Kelly. She was the youngest of twelve children. She attended St. Bede’s Catholic School in Kelly, graduating from Kelly High School in 1940.

With her parents being German immigrants, the family spoke German in the home before English. When Alma was five years old, her parents went on a month-long trip to Germany and she was left in the care of her older sister Josepha Steinlage. As a child, Alma remembered praying the rosary in German at church with fellow classmates. She walked to and from school. During her teens and early twenties, time was spent visiting relatives, going to family reunions, wedding dances, making home-made ice cream and butter and attending church activities. Work she did at that time was gardening, housework, making meals and she helped with the canning of the fruits and vegetables and the milking of the cows.

Alma met Fred Holthaus, a World War II veteran at a wedding dance in 1946 at the city hall on Main Street in Seneca. They were married in St. Bede’s Catholic Church on April 15, 1947. She and Fred lived and farmed one and one half miles west of Kelly where they farmed and raised cattle and hogs. Fred died October 22, 1998. Alma’s survivors are her five children: Leonard (Len) and (Debi), Lee’s Summit, MO; Marlene (Dennis) Handke , Topeka; Steve Holthaus, Seneca; Clarence Holthaus, Centralia; Alda (Jeff) LaCrone, Topeka; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Alma was a member of St. Bede’s Catholic Church and the St. Ann’s Altar Society at Kelly. She enjoyed gardening, canning and baking (especially pies) and making comforters for her children. When she was younger, she ran errands for her husband and sons at planting and harvest time. Fred and Alma traveled to Colorado, St. Louis, Florida, Wisconsin and Hawaii. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on April 15, 1997. Later Alma enjoyed visiting relatives and others in the nursing homes and e-mailing her family on her computer, not even having taken typing in high school. She enjoyed going to church picnics and was on the prayer chain at church. Alma was a kind and devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

She was preceded in death by her husband Fred; six brothers, George, Lawrence, Frank, Ed, Joe, and Al Haverkamp; five sisters, Anna Boeding, Dora Steinlage, Mary Haug, Josepha Steinlage and Rose Bergman.

Rosaries will be prayed 2 and 7 p.m. on Friday, February 21, 2020 at the Lauer Funeral Home. The Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 22, 2020 at St. Bede’s Church in Kelly.

Memorials may be given for Kelly Heritage Fund and sent in care of the family.

To express your sympathy and for more information visit www.lauerfuneralhome.com