Catharine Bock

Catharine Frances Lewis Bock, 97, of Cape Girardeau passed peacefully to her Lord Tuesday, March 9, 2004, at the Lutheran Home.

She was born Catharine Frances Lewis to Thomas Houston and Mary Catharine Tisdale Lewis, Nov. 23, 1906, at the family farm home in Cape Girardeau County (the old Hitt Road). She and Edgar Paul Bock were married June 16, 1932. He preceded her in death Sept. 20, 1988.

Catharine attended old Campster School, and graduated from Central High School in 1925. She began her college education in 1926 at Southeast Missouri State University. She would go to college a year, then teach a year or two, then finish another year in college. She taught at Dogwood School in Fruitland and Abernathy School in Cape Girardeau County before graduating from Southeast in 1933.

She was a member of the Hesperian Society at the university. Catharine was a lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church, active in Sunday School, women's circle, and Women of the Church. She and husband Edgar were adult advisers to the Pioneer and Senior High Fellowship youth groups many years.

She was very active in the work of Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society, where she held a lifetime membership and was a past president. She was also active in the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Humane Society of Southeast Missouri, and worked on the sesquicentennial committee in 1956. She was often a precinct judge at Franklin School during election years.

Catharine lived in Cape Girardeau County all her life. Her travel highlight was a three-week trip to Scotland, Wales, and England with her son, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, Geraldine Fish Bock, and her grandchildren Richard and Catharine.

She is survived by her only child, Lewis Edgar Bock and wife Carolyn Ford Bock of the Woodlands, Texas, and Cape Girardeau; a grandson, Drew Larson of Oceanside, Calif.; twin grandchildren, Richard Lewis Bock, a student at Loyola University in New Orleans, Catharine Elizabeth Bock, a student at Webster University in Webster Groves, Mo.; a granddaughter, Kathryn Ford Sanders and husband Scott; and a great-granddaughter, Grace Kathryn Sanders.

Also surviving are Evelyn Lewis Walker, Thomas R. Lewis Jr., Barbara Lewis Payne, Ellen Bock Hogan, Phillip Bock, Barry Bock, Donald Bock, Peggy Fiedler, Patricia Schlegel, Kenneth Musbach, Ralph Musbach and Eugene Musbach, all nieces and nephews of Catharine. She loved them one and all!

She was preceded in death by her parents; her twin brother, Thomas Robert Lewis; brothers Bernard and Harold Lewis; and many cousins in the Lewis clan.

Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday.

The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Paul Kabo officiating. Burial will be in Cape County Memorial Park.

Memorials may be made to First Presbyterian Church or Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society.