Memorial services for 85-year old Sara Shepherd, a former longtime resident of Chadron, NE, are Tuesday, Dec 28, 2021, at 2:00 CT at Faith-Westwood United Methodist Church in Omaha, NE.
After cremation, inurnment will take place at the Madrid Cemetery in Madrid, NE.
Memorials may be sent to the Chadron State Foundation for the Dr Allen and Sara Shepherd Scholarship Fund at Chadron State College.
Sara Lazlo Shepherd was born July 15, 1936, in Dunaszentgyorgy, Hungary, to Ferenc and Lidia Laszlo. She passed away Dec 10, 2021 in Omaha, NE.
Sara lived in the midst of some of history’s most tumultuous times: the expansion of the Nazis into Hungary, World War II, the take-over of Hungary and Eastern Europe by the Russians after the war, and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Sara made the best of those dislocating events.
She was the top student graduating from the Dunaszentgyorgi Elementary School, but the Soviets refused to allow her to enter high school, so she moved in with her cousin, Margit, in Miskolc. There she worked during the day and went to High School at night.
Wanting a college education, she and the Szucses left Hungary during the 1956 Revolution, coming to the United States where she found herself at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln pursuing a Degree in Chemistry.
Upon graduation she was employed by Dow Corning in Midland, MI until she joined husband Allen, who was in the Army, in Alabama and Georgia.
After the Army, they moved to Lincoln, where Allen pursued graduate degrees. Sara did research in the chemistry department and eventually secured a Medical Technology Degree. After moving to Chadron, she was employed at the Crawford Hospital for her adult career.
Sara was fond of flowers and gardening and was a member of P.E.O. and the United Methodist Church.
She and Allen loved to travel, not only to her home in Hungary, but also to destinations around the world.
After moving to Omaha, Sara actively volunteered at the Harvey Oaks Elementary school library and made beautiful afghans, scarves and caps for Faith-Westwood UMC donations.
She loved people, not things. She was a generous person, who gave, gave, gave. She lived an extraordinary life but lived it in a simple manner.
At 13 she accepted Jesus Christ as her savior and all her life after that lived according to the tenets of Christianity. She loved her faith in God, sharing it with others, working hard, and accepting God’s Will. Her faith was, to the very end, remarkable.
Sara was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Beno.
She is survived by several relations in Hungary and the U.S. and by her immediate family: husband Allen, son Phil and family of Omaha (wife, Jill and children, Calli, Mike, Ben, Carly/Mike and Ashley); daughter Lydia and family, (husband, Jeff and children, Alison, Kyle, Cameron, Katie and Paul) of Mentor, OH.
Sara and my Mom, Gen David, were friends in Chadron. Sara’s baking repertoire included my Mom’s baklava recipe. When Allen and Sara moved to Omaha, Sara volunteered at the Harvey Oaks School Library where I worked. She was a phenomenal volunteer! Sara was a special person and I’m thankful I got to know her.