Aliene Bernice Manz

Funeral service for Aliene Manz, age 98, of Milaca, will be held on Friday, January 3, 2014 at 11 AM at Lighthouse Fellowship (formerly Milaca Assembly of God). Interment will follow at Wendell Hill Cemetery near Milaca. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church on Friday. Aliene Bernice Manz was born February 14, 1915 to Ralph and Margaret (Bulger) Smith in Bushnell, South Dakota. She moved with her family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1922, where she graduated from high school. Aliene attended Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, in 1936, where she met Frances Marian Snyder Olson, who became her life-long friend (sister) for the seventy plus years. The two served as missionaries, teaching school at an orphanage in Liberia, Africa from 1946 to 1954. Aliene was then united in marriage to widower Eli Manz on August 24, 1957 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1959, the couple moved to Milaca and purchased a beef farm east of town. She was an active member of the Milaca Assembly of God Church, where she taught Sunday school and was Sunday school superintendent for many years. Centennial Terrace Apartments has been her final home for the past eighteen years. She passed away on Saturday, December 28, 2013 at her home. She was preceded in death by her husband, Eli; parents, Ralph and Margaret; brothers, Dellmer Smith and wife Jane and Maynard Smith and wife Ione; infant brothers, Artel and Willmer and son-in-law, Dale Sommerlot. She is survived by son, Maurice (Darlene) Manz; daughter, Ruth Sommerlot; seven grandchildren; sixteen great-grandchildren; seven great-great-grandchildren; four nephews; two nieces; godchildren, Julie (Bruce) Martin, Steve (Tammy) Olson, Lynnette (Gerald) Schroeder and many friends.