Robert Metz

Pleasanton resident, 87


KEARNEY - Robert F. Metz, 87, of Pleasanton died Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney.


Memorial services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Pleasanton Evangelical Free Church with the Revs. Tim Pearson and Rob Pearson officiating. Burial of cremains will be later at Pleasanton Cemetery.


There will be no visitation.


O'Brien-Straatmann Funeral Home in Kearney is in charge of arrangements.


He was born May 27, 1921, near Pleasanton to Benjamin and Susan (Phillips) Metz.


On Oct. 6, 1945, he married Evelyn Shaffer in Huntington Park, Calif.



Survivors include his wife; sons, Norman and his wife, Janet, of rural Pleasanton and Robert and his wife, Robin, of Kearney; daughters, Katherine Sibley and her husband, Gene, of Denver, Barbara Garrelts and her husband, Wayne, of Kearney and DeEtta Petska of Ord; brother, David and his wife, Eileen, of Kearney; 13 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.


He grew up east of Pleasanton and graduated from Pleasanton High School in 1942. He joined the U.S. Army on June 8, 1942, and served in North Africa and Corsica and under General Patton in Germany. He was honorably discharged Oct. 28, 1945.


He worked for the Nebraska Department of Roads and then Good Samaritan Hospital in the maintenance department before retiring in 1986.


He was a member of the Kearney Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 759. He enjoyed traveling and loved the land and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.


He was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers and six sisters.


Memorials are suggested to the Pleasanton Fire and Rescue Unit or the Pleasanton High School Scholarship Fund.


Online condolences or personal reflections can be submitted at osafh.com.