Nadine Hoch celebrated her 100th birthday on Oct. 13, 2022 and died on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. She was born in Marion, KS to Claude Raymond Noll and Corinne LaVille Case Noll and grew up on the family farm, along the Cottonwood River, in nearby Florence, Kansas. In 1943 she married her high school sweetheart Roland Fayette Myers. Myers, a first lieutenant in the Army Air Forces, was lost at sea when his plane went down in the Pacific Ocean, August 1, 1944. Nadine married Wharton Hoch in 1946, a 3rd generation newspaperman and editor of the Marion County Record. The couple, along with Wharton’s son Richard, made their home on the Marion County Lake, in a tiny cabin, expanded as the family grew to include four more children: Robert Wharton, Beverly Jean, James Edward and William Dennis. Wharton passed away in 1967 at the age of 59. Widowed again at age 42, Nadine demonstrated without question that she was truly of the “Greatest Generation” by carrying on. As a single mother she raised her family, became the owner and publisher of the newspaper, and assumed various leadership roles in Valley United Methodist Church, as well as other civic organizations. She was a seventy-year member of the P.E.O Sisterhood.
Nadine lived her life with gratitude, grace and unconditional love for her family and was a beacon of Christ’s light in her quiet, gentle way. She delighted in her five children, fourteen grandchildren, eleven great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. A first-grade teacher then homemaker, she enjoyed sewing, cooking, bridge, square dancing, and mowing the yard on her power mower. At age seventy-five she was reprimanded for climbing on her roof to clean leaves from the gutters. Throughout her life Nadine was resourceful, thoughtful and joyfully accepted each day God’s gift. She began traveling extensively in the 1980s, often to hear her daughter Beverly sing on opera and concert stages in the US and Europe. Nadine possessed a beautiful singing voice and harmonized easily by ear. She loved the old time hymns and enjoyed her large collection of popular sheet music.
In 2001 she married Jim Kline, a life-long friend and moved to Arlington, TX. where she learned oil painting, coloring, and knitted over 300 baby caps for the NICU. She even tried Tai Chi. Jim passed away in 2011 and in 2016 Nadine moved to Denton, TX. Since March of 2020 she resided with daughter Beverly and son-in-law Mike Steinel. She passed away there peacefully after watching a rare winter thunder and lightning storm and enjoying her favorite Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream. She will be remembered for her charm, kindness, ageless beauty, practicality and wit, and her love of clouds, stars, sunsets, peanut butter and Dove chocolate, reading and working crossword puzzles. She solved her first Wordle just two weeks before her passing. She led by example and exorbitant love. A matriarch and beloved child of God, she was known lovingly by all her grands and greats as “Nana”.
She is survived by sons Robert (Donna) Hoch, Wichita, KS; Jim (Cindy) Hoch, Warrenville, IL; and Bill (Alix), Aspen, CO; daughter Beverly (Mike Steinel) Hoch of Denton, TX; step-daughter Jill Kline (Ron) Miller, Grapevine, TX; stepson Mark Kline, Costa Rica; grandchildren Sarah Hoch and Hannah Hoch of San Miguel de Allende, MX; Richard (Kristie) Hoch, Tucson, AZ; Bobby (Fran) Hoch, Newton, KS; Adrienne (Rob) Anderson, Wichita, KS; Natalie (Jeremy Salapek) Steinel, Lawrence MA; Grace (Ben Jones) Steinel, Austin, TX; Stephanie Hoch, Aurora, IL, Matthew (Brittany) Hoch, Sugar Grove, IL, Nicole (Ian) Stewart, Sandwich, IL and greats Nancy Anne, Santiago, Rich, Joshua, Rebekah, Sarah, Lauren, Robert II, Coco Nadine, Calder, Oliver, Jack and great-greats Eli and Johan. She was preceded in death by her parents Claude and Corinne Noll; her brother, Ned Noll; and her husbands Roland Myers, Wharton Hoch and Jim Kline; her stepson Richard Hoch, his wife Nancy, and their son-in-law Ernesto Herrera.
A visitation took place on Friday, February 10, 2023 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at the DeBerry Funeral Home in Denton, TX. A visitation will be held on Thursday Feb. 16 from 6:00-8:00 at Yazel Megli Funeral Home in Marion KS, and a service will be held on February 17, 2023 in Marion, Kansas at Valley United Methodist Church with interment in Marion’s Highland Cemetery. A memorial “Hymn Sing for Nana Hoch” will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Denton, TX at a later date this spring.
