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Tankersley -- Graveside services for Mary Elizabeth Tankersley, of Albuquerque, who died Monday, February 28, 200, will be 2:00 p.m., Saturday, March 4, 2000 at Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, Kansas, with Jesse Snow, North Baptist Church, Ottawa, officiating. She will lie in state at the Dengel & Sons Mortuary, Ottawa, Kansas after 6:00 p.m., Thursday, to the service hour, where the family will meet with friends 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Friday evening. Mrs. Tankersley was born July 20, 1912 at Princeton, Kansas, the daughter of Earl Wilford and Bessie (Hardin) Johnson. She spent most of her life in Franklin County, Kansas, except for eight years in Alamosa, Colorado, and the last six years in Albuquerque, living with her daughter, Margaret and her family. Mary graduated from Princeton High School with the class of 1930 and spent two years in nursing school at Research Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. She operated the first rural licensed nursing home in Franklin County at her home just south of the city limits of Princeton. Later, she was administrator of the first Cedar House, at 3rd and Cedar, Ottawa, for Dr. C.W. Henning for three years until it was closed, and she became the first administrator of the new county owned Crestview Nursing Home on West 7th Street Terrace, Ottawa, when it opened in 1959. Mary was awarded the Nursing Home Administrator of the Year by the Kansas Nurses Association in 1960. She retired from the Crestview Nursing Home in January of 1972. Mary continued working at Ransom Memorial Hospital and retired in 1974. On March 8, 1932, Mary was united in marriage with Seth C. Tankersley at Leavenworth, Kansas. He preceded her in death on December 9, 1951. Also preceding her in death are her parents; one step-son Eugene Tankersley, April 22, 1988; one step-daughter, Norvella Tinsley, September, 1999; one brother, George Earl Johnson, October, 1943; one sister, Pauline Vollmar, October, 1999; four infant grandchildren; one step-grandson, Victor J. Perry, January, 1968; four sons-in-law, Albert Perry, July, 1953, Bill J. King, September, 1972, Elroy Kaub, February, 1999, and Walter F. Atkerson, October, 1999. Surviving are two daughters, Margaret Atkerson, Albuquerque, Dorothy Kaub, Bailey, CO; seven grandchildren; 17 step-grandchildren; 43 great-grandchildren; and numerous great-great-grandchildren.
        Published on: Thu March 02, 2000