Anna Mae Bahlmann

Annamae Bahlmann age 101 of Nashua died Thursday, January 1, 2026 at Bartels Lutheran Home – Woodland Terrace in Waverly.

Funeral Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at United Methodist Church in Nashua with Pastor Josh Hanson officiating.

Friends are invited to greet the family one hour prior to the service at the church in Nashua.

Hugeback – Johnson Funeral & Crematory – Olson Chapel in Nashua has been entrusted with arrangements.

Anna Mae Bahlmann was born to Carl and Charlotte Beekman on March 10, 1924, in Charles City, Iowa.  She graduated from Charles City High School in 1940 at the age of 16, valedictorian of her class.  After graduation, she worked as a receptionist and bookkeeper in the office of Dr. C. W. McQuillen, a local doctor, until age 18, when she began teaching in rural schools.  After furthering her education during summer sessions at Iowa State Teachers College, Upper Iowa University, and a memorable summer at State Teachers College in Greeley, Colorado, she earned a wartime teaching certificate which qualified her to teach in town schools.  Subsequently, she taught elementary in the Floyd Consolidated School and Plainfield school districts.  She taught school eight years, including one year after marriage.  During these years, she acquired a Model A Ford, and the tales of her adventures in her Model A entertained her family for years.

She met Elmer Bahlmann at a family wedding.  They began dating when he asked her to sit with him in the bleachers for an event at the Big Four Fair in Nashua.  They married in 1949, and she joined him in farming southwest of Nashua.  A busy farmwife, she left teaching to raise their four children, later returning to work outside the home as an office manager and head bookkeeper for Skyline Harvestore Systems in Nashua from 1967-1982, and later, at a local motorcycle shop.  After a long life together on the farm, Elmer and Anna Mae moved to Nashua in 2000.

Anna Mae was devoted to her family.  She was a loving and supportive mother, always ready to listen or offer encouraging words.  She loved her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and enjoyed watching them grow.  She maintained ties with extended family through letters, visits, and reunions, where she was known for her meatloaf, potato salad, and lemon meringue pie.  Family birthdays were celebrated with angel food cake and strawberries.  She was deeply interested in genealogy and kept records for both the Beekman and Bahlmann families.

Beloved pets were a big part of the family, their adventures described in stories Anna Mae wrote for her grandchildren.  In addition to nurturing family members and pets, she had a gift for growing houseplants, and there was always a collection of thriving plants at her windows.  She had a keen interest in history, following world events on the radio as a teenager and enjoying lively discussions about current happenings as an adult.  An avid reader, she always had a book at hand for her next great read.

She loved to tell stories of days gone by, but she was also eager to keep up with the times.  In her more than one hundred years of living, she moved from filling kerosene lamps to light her home as a child to witnessing a world transformed by the internet.  Her experience of life without electricity was featured in an interview for a National History Day Senior Individual Website project entitled “With the Flip of A Switch on the Rural Frontier: REA Lights the Way.” The website project  placed third in national competition in June of 2023.

She had a strong faith and was active in church throughout her life.  She taught junior high and adult Sunday School, helped establish a Sunday School library, served as Sunday School superintendent and church treasurer.  She held every office in the Nashua United Methodist Church Women’s group and was a member of Circle Ruth and Bible Study.

She was a member of Former Rural Teachers and Isabella Club.

Her life was not without heartache.  Her mother, Charlotte, died when Anna Mae was two, a loss she felt all her life.  She had only one picture of her mother, and she treasured it dearly.  She lost her twelve-year old daughter, Gloria, to complications of flu after a two-year battle with childhood cancer.  Her home on the farm was hit by a tornado.  She lost her husband in 2008.  She lost her grandson, Adam Bahlmann, when he was twenty-six.  She learned to meet adversity with determination and perseverance.  And in every stage of life, she said, she met a friend who helped her through it.

Anna Mae is survived by children Barbara (David) McGregor, Judy (Jarl) Aronsen, Bruce Bahlmann; grandchildren Amy (Ash) Kading, Sarah McGregor, Immanuel (Tori) Mueller, Gavin Aronsen, Brent (Erin Webb) Aronsen; great-grandchildren Hope, Paul, and Luke Kading, and Vivienne and Evangeline Mueller, and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by daughter Gloria Bahlmann in 1965, husband Elmer Bahlmann, grandson Adam Bahlmann in 2013, parents Carl and Charlotte Beekman, stepmother Jennie Beekman, siblings Madelon Groen, infant Elizabeth Beekman, infant Carl Beekman, Carlisle Beekman, Doris Dana, Florence McGregor, Marjorie Mitchell, and Marilyn Pencook.

(641) 435-4134