Kelly D. Gebhardt • St. Paul, NE Resident, 55

   Kelly D. Gebhardt, 55 of St. Paul, formerly of Missouri, passed away on May 4, 2022, in Omaha, NE with her family by her side.

   As per Kelly’s wishes, cremation has taken place. A family service was Mon., May 9, 2022, in St. Joseph, MO. Memorials are suggested to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Jacobsen-Greenway-Dietz Funeral Home assisted the family.

   Kelly Anderson Gebhardt was born May 13, 1966, in St. Joseph, MO to parents, Don E. Anderson and Mary (Cotter) Anderson. Kelly grew up in Cameron and graduated from Cameron High School in 1984. In 1987 she was united in marriage to Todd Poretta. They lived in the Kansas City area where they raised their two children. They later divorced. On Dec. 26, 2013, Kelly and John Gebhardt were married. They made St. Paul their home.

   Kelly experienced many health problems throughout her life and yet was a positive influence on her family and friends. When her health did not allow her to work anymore, she turned her life to gardening, helping John on the farm and her home.  Most of all she loved her family and friends.

   Kelly is survived by her husband, John of St. Paul; children, Travis Poretta and Taylor (Kevin) Chadwick; grandchildren, Nicholas, Henry and Remington; stepchildren, Anna, Cole, Caleb and Lauren Gebhardt; parents, Don E. Anderson and Mary (Jerry) Cotter Sprong; brothers, Kevin (Chris) Anderson and Kent (Lorenna) Anderson; several nieces and nephews, and other relatives and many friends. 

   Online condolences may be directed to the family at www.jacobsengreenway.com.

William H. Norton, Jr. • Omaha, NE Resident, 68

May



2022

04

   William Hayden Norton, Jr. – Bill Norton, or “Billy,” as he is known to his oldest friends – took his last breath Feb. 22, 2022, at the Med Center in Omaha, NE, in the arms of his sister.

   Bill was born Oct. 8, 1953, in Osceola, NE, the son of Nancy Rogers Sayre and William Hayden Norton.

   He is preceded in death by his grandparents, Dale Burdette and Helen Lucille (Cily) Rogers Sayre, and William Wendell and Catherine Eleanor (Honey) Hayden Norton; his great-aunts and uncles, Evelyn Maurine Norton and Harold Wayne (Abe) Lincoln, and Josephine Hayden and Elgin (Bing) Ingram; both of his parents, Nancy and Bill; and his wife, Madeline Aper.

   During his career as a New York artist, Norton served as Creative Director of the interactive group at the advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather.

   As an internet pioneer, Norton worked with both teletext and videotext, technologies historians now call “the internet before the internet.” In the beginning, he hand drew images, then translated those images into dots of light (pixels) on a television screen. This was before the Mac had been created and before images could be digitized.

   Norton attended public school in Osceola, NE. Upon graduation in 1971, he entered the Kansas City Art Institute. He earned dual degrees in history and art from the University of Nebraska. After graduation he worked in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., while continuing his study of art at the Corcoran School of Art, earning another degree from that institution.

   While at the Corcoran, Norton saw a note posted on a bulletin board seeking an unpaid intern for an experimental project at the PBS television station WETA. Norton interviewed, and was asked to come back and play on their computer. He did, and as he later said, “I found it extraordinarily fascinating.”

   WETA asked Norton to be their artist on the new project, which was one of the first U.S. field trials of graphic, broadcast TV teletext. Using a Canadian platform called Telidon, information was embedded in the TV signal and displayed by a special set-top box. It was on Telidon that Norton became one of the first American artists making images out of light to accompany text on a screen. Collaborating with WETA staff and Red Burns from New York University, who commuted to Washington for the WETA project, Norton helped define the future of digital interactive media.

   In 1983, the WETA trial ended, as did Norton’s internship, but shortly, thereafter he received a phone call from Martin Nisenholtz at Ogilvy & Mather in New York. Nisenholtz asked if Bill would like to come up and interview for a job. Nisenholtz had created the cutting edge Interactive Marketing Group making Ogilvy, the first major advertising agency to establish an interactive capability. Norton became their artist.

   Over the years, working with Nisenholtz and a handful of artists and business people in New York, Norton laid groundwork for the internet as we know it today.

   When Norton returned to Nebraska he continued to create art – sculpture, pen and ink drawings, watercolors – which he shared with his friends, and to watch the fruits of his labors in digital advertising change the world. He is known for his visionary digital graphics; the hypnotic hex signs he painted; the Jazz mural he created on the exterior of a building in Omaha’s Little Italy; the illustrations he contributed to his sister’s St. Martin’s Press book Hawk Flies Above: Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills; and for his abiding creativity. Any time Bill held an object, his first thought was: What can I do with this? And then he would create something surprising.

   No services were held. Bill asked that his ashes be spread privately at Lake Ericson in the Sandhills where the Nortons have owned cabins since the 1940s when Bill and Catherine first purchased theirs. The next generation, Bill and Nancy Norton, purchased The Big Six Country Club (cabin) in 1960, and for 62 years it has served as a joyous family haven.

   If memorials are considered, Billy would say: “Instead, please adopt an animal who needs a home.”

   Billy Norton is survived by his sister, Lisa Dale Norton, who loved him more than the sun and the moon and the stars.

Ruby E. Kasson • Trenton, IL Resident, 87

   Ruby Ellen, nee Gydesen, Kasson, age 87, of Trenton, IL, passed away peacefully at home Friday, April 29, 2022.

   She was born Nov. 22, 1934, daughter of the late Elmer and Helen, nee Bennett, Gydesen, on a farm eight miles north of Scotia, NE. She attended a one room country gradeschool and Scotia High School where she was a cheerleader. She was married Aug. 10, 1953, to her high school sweetheart, Henry Kasson, who had enlisted in the United States Air Force.  They took up residency in Wichita Falls, TX for a year, then moved to Amarillo TX, and moved again to McConnel Air Force Base in Wichita, KS where five children were born. The military moved her family several more times to Sewart AFB Tennessee, Yakota AFB Japan, Tachikawa AFB Japan, McGuire AFB New Jersey, and finally to Scott AFB, settling in Trenton, IL in 1968.

   Ruby was involved in the PTA, Mater Dei Mothers & Friends, St. Mary’s Altar Society (president) and a sacrist (six different priests), the Parish Council, an election official, an Avon lady, a St. Joseph Hospital Auxiliary volunteer, and was the first female sworn crosswalk guard working for the Trenton City Police Department.  She enjoyed oil painting, quilting, gardening, and activities with her children and grandchildren.

   Ruby is survived by her husband, Henry Kasson; children, Dennis Kasson, David (Cindy) Kasson, Linda Kasson, and Robert (Terese) Kasson; and nine grandchildren, Meghan (friend David) Kasson, Adam Kasson, Sam Kasson, Nicole Kasson, Caroline Kasson, Rebecca (friend James) Spears, Erin (friend Clinton) Kasson, Joseph (fiancée Paige) Kasson, and Will (friend Chrissy) Kasson, and bonus granddaughter, Miranda (Eric) Schmidt.

   Ruby was preceded in death by her parents; daughter, Beverly Jo Kasson; father-in-law and mother-in-law, Charles and Hilda, nee Meese, Kasson; brother, Marvin Gydesen; sister, Alma May Dee; and brothers-in-law, James Kasson and Robert (Bert) Meyer.

   Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be Sat., May 7, 2022 at 2 p.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church in Trenton with Fr. Daniel Friedman and Fr. Joseph Rascher concelebrating.  Interment will take place at a later date in Nebraska.

   Visitation will be Sat., May 7, 2022 from 1-2 p.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church in Trenton.

   Memorials may be made to Mater Dei Catholic High School or St. Mary Catholic Church and will be received at the visitation or by mail, Moss Funeral Home, 105 S. Main St. Trenton, IL 62293, who is serving the family.

   Expressions of sympathy can be sent to the family at www.mossfuneralhome.com.

Memorial Service May 21 • Wayne and Joyce Goff • Grand Island, NE Residents

   A Memorial Service will be held for the late Wayne and Joyce Goff, formerly of Grand Island. The service will be May 21, 2022 at 11 a.m. in Gollaher Chapel, Trinity United Methodist Church, 511 N Elm Street in Grand Island, NE.