Pat DeWayne Redden

Pat DeWayne Redden, age 96, passed away Tuesday, August 8, 2023, at Ridgewood Rehab and Care Center in Seward, NE.

Pat was born on August 8, 1927, the youngest of 14 children, to parents Austin Earl and Mary Elisabeth (Mosher) Redden near Champion, NE.

On January 1, 1952, Pat married Berniece Straub in Benkelman, NE, and 7 children were born to this union.  Pat was a husband & father, devoted to his faith, and to being a good provider to his family.

As a youngster at home, Pat found pleasure working with and training his animals. He would ride his trusty mule to school carrying his lunch bucket.  Pat learned animal care skills from his Dad and contemplated training as a veterinarian. Although this didn’t happen, Pat always loved working with cattle and horses.

Rattlesnakes he didn’t like so much!  He readily killed any he saw, and kept a shovel handy, especially when prairie dog hunting with his daughters and their families. Pat was skilled in water-witching and was called upon to help establish good well locations.

For a short while after his marriage, Pat drove a truck hauling cattle. After an accident with a loaded truck, he gave this up and worked as a rancher and farmer the rest of his life.  Cattle ranching was always the closest to his heart. Berniece & his girls enjoyed helping with chores, rounding up and driving cattle, and doing fieldwork.

Pat was not fond of the dark, and told of an incident with his Dad, because he had fibbed about having checked a nest for turkey eggs.  He didn’t want to go out in the dark, so he went outside and stood awhile, then went back in and told his Dad there were no eggs.  Grandpa Austin knew he hadn’t been gone long enough to check and told Dad to go again. After confessing his fear of the dark, his dad told him to take a flashlight.  There was an egg in the nest, and Dad was sure he would be punished, but instead, his father told him this was a lesson, saying “You have to be honest with yourself, or you can’t be honest with anybody else.”  He sought to live by this lesson throughout his life, and taught his girls this bit of wisdom from their grandfather.

Soon after his marriage to Berniece, March 1952 began a year of grief for them, beginning with the death of his brother Austin, who’d been the only one of his Company to return from the war. By year-end, Pat and Berniece also laid to rest their infant son. During this time, they continued to help his mother care for his father, who was bedfast after a stroke, passing in March of 1953. Pat told his daughters of praying earnestly, asking God what His purpose was for life. Not many months after this, his mother-in-law, Rosie told his mother, Mary, “Come and hear what these men are teaching from the Bible, and the hymns they sing.” In 1959, at the age of 31, Pat chose to embrace Christ in his life, and was committed to that choice up to his death. Through the years, hearing his daughters sing (often while traveling) gave him great joy.

Pat is survived by his daughters, Lois Miller (Tom) of Verdon, NE; Linda Bush (Gordon) of Riverton, NE; Lola Beyer (Del) of Sioux Center, IA; Lorene Lanus (Steve) of Algona, IA; Leota Schutte (Mike) of Seward, NE; and Laura Heisler (Ken) of Humboldt, KS; 17 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his wife; parents; infant son, DeWayne; six brothers: Henry, Austin Earl, Jim, Raymond, Herman, and Max; seven sisters, Gladus Bird, Annie Hogsett, Bessie Redden, Jesse Martin, Mattie North, and in infancy: Ollie May and Ida.