Gertrude M. "Gert" Kuszak

Gertrude M. “Gert” Kuszak, 95, of St. Paul, formerly of North Loup, died Tuesday, June 28, 2022, at Brookefield Park in St. Paul.

Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 6, 2022, at St. Josaphat’s Catholic Church in Loup City. The Rev. Richard L. Piontkowski will celebrate the Mass. Burial will be in the Evergreen Cemetery in Loup City.

Visitation will be Tuesday, July 5, 2022, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the church, with a 7 p.m. Sodality Rosary.

The service will be recorded and uploaded on Peters Funeral Home Facebook page. The direct link for that page is www.facebook.com/PetersfuneralHomeSP.

Memorials may be made to the Polish Heritage Center in Ashton or to North Loup Pride for the purchase of planters for main street.

Peters Funeral Home of Loup City is assisting the family.

Gert was born on Dec. 6, 1926, in Ashton to John and Victoria (Kurtz) Kuffel.

She attended rural schools in Sherman County. As a young girl she cleaned homes in Ashton and later worked at the Ordinance Plant in Grand Island.

She was united in marriage to Ben Kuszak on May 22, 1950, at the St. Francis Church in Ashton. They farmed in rural Sherman County their entire married lives until retiring in 1986, when they sold the farm and moved into North Loup. Gert worked side by side with Ben, milking cows, raising hogs, fixing fence and chopping thistles. She loved this life and never complained. She loved cooking and baking and no feed salesman that ever came on the place left without being invited in for coffee and some type of homemade delicacy. She baked the best cinnamon rolls, apple pie and bread and fried chicken, which she raised and butchered. Ben and Gert enjoyed years of going to polka dances and glided effortlessly on the floor and spent many Sunday mornings dancing in the kitchen while listening to the polka show on the radio.

She was a member of the North Loup American Legion Auxiliary, St. Josaphat’s Church, CCW and Rosary Sodality. While living in North Loup, she spent many years calling for the Red Cross bloodmobile.

Gert loved to entertain card players at her home in North Loup and always served them a hefty lunch. She loved flowers and polka music but most of all treasured her grandchildren, as well as, their friends. Her door was always open to all of them and treats were abundant, as they came there after school and hungry.

Gert moved to St. Paul in Oct. of 2011, residing at Matelyn Retirement Community until moving to Brookefield Park in June of 2021.

Sher is survived by her children, Jim and Vee Kuszak of Kokomo, IN, Linda Brewer of Omaha and Rita and Jim Shoemaker of North Loup; 9 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and 3 great great grandchildren; and a sister, Jean Pilakowski of Portland, OR.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Ben in 2003; son-in-law, Don Brewer; brother, Ben Kuffel; sisters, Mary Guzinski and Elizabeth Kuszak; and brothers-in-law, Alonzo Guzinski, Clemence Kuszak and Paul Pilakowski.