Funeral Services for J. Lorraine Huffman

Lorraine Huffman, 88, formerly of Elgin, NE passed away Thursday, December 10, 2015, in the compassionate care of the Denver Hospice Inpatient Care Center in Denver, CO. 

Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m. Saturday, December 19, 2015 at the United Methodist Church in Elgin, NE with Rev. Michael Davis officiating. Interment will follow in West Cedar Valley Cemetery near Elgin, NE. Visitation will be 4:00-7:00 p.m. Friday at Huffman-Levander Funeral Home in Elgin, NE. 

Joyce Lorraine Huffman, daughter of Ernest Charles and Alta V. Jenkins Kinney was born May 16, 1927, on the family farm west of Elgin. Lorraine grew to womanhood in the Park Center community west of Elgin where she was a member of the Park Congregational Church and attended Park Center School through the tenth grade. A graduate of the Elgin High School with the Class of 1943, she taught one year at Little Gem School west of Elgin before entering the University of Nebraska in the fall of 1945. There she was a member of Rho Chapter, Alpha Xi Delta social sorority. Upon graduation from the University in May of 1948, she enrolled in graduate studies at Columbia University in New York City, completing a dietetic internship at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the spring of 1949. 

Lorraine was united in marriage to Richard Belden Huffman on October 30, 1949, at the Park Congregational Church. With the intent of returning to Elgin after Rick completed training at the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science, the newlyweds spent the larger part of their first year of marriage in Dallas, Texas, where Lorraine worked as a registered dietitian at Florence Nightingale Hospital. Upon their return to Elgin in late 1950, the couple assumed the management of W.E. Brooks Funeral Services, Hardware & Furniture, purchasing this local business from Rick’s mother in 1961, and the Walter Snider Mortuary at Clearwater in 1965. Funeral services became the primary focus of the Elgin business when the hardware and furniture store was closed in 1970. She also was actively involved in farming & crop management. 

After her marriage, Lorraine became an active member of the Elgin United Methodist Church, participating in many related activities including: United Methodist Women, teaching Sunday school, and singing in the church choir. She served as choir director for over 20 years. Lorraine’s beautiful, soprano voice was enjoyed regularly by church members, and musically graced many other local gatherings. 

In 1969, Lorraine re-enrolled in the University of Nebraska (distance learning), becoming successfully reinstatement as a Registered Dietician by the American Dietetic Association. Throughout the following decade she provided consultant dietetic services for local, private clients and healthcare facilities throughout northeast Nebraska. 

Lorraine’s lifelong values of faith, family, health, education, & musicianship continue to be far reaching. 

Lorraine is survived by: her sister, Doris Kinney Slajchert & husband, George (Westlake Village, CA); her five children: Anna Huffman Dunbar (Denver, CO); Sarah Hutchinson & husband, Jim (Prescott, AZ); Rollie Huffman (Elgin, NE); Charles Huffman (Omaha, NE); Betty Agens (Pine, CO); daughter-in-law Laurie Huffman (Neligh, NE); 7 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, several nieces and nephews, and a number of cousins. 

She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, her brothers Burt Kinney and Laverne Kinney, and 2 sons-in-law: Henry Riter Agens, Jr. and John Hanson.

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