Esther Lucille Hoffman Boots was born January 3, 1920, to Alpha Dwiggins and Otto Hoffman in Buffalo County, Nebraska.
She died September 26, 2017, at the Good Samaritan Nursing Home in Alliance, Nebraska.
Esther went to a country school in Buffalo County for her elementary education and graduated from Gibbon High School in May of 1937.
Esther came out to visit and help her aunt and uncle, Paul and Ocia Lineback, north of Ellsworth, shortly after graduating from high school and then went to work for Earl and Marie Monahan as a nanny. That is where she met her husband, Gerald Boots. They were married July 3, 1940, in Kearney, NE.
They started their married life at the Abbott West Ranch. Eventually, they moved to the Boots Ranch, south of Ashby, where they raised their family until 1958, when they all moved to town. They resided in Ashby until Esther moved to Alliance in 2005.
Esther belonged to the Ashby Congregational Church, Golden Rule Chapter 134 Order of Eastern Star, and Sandhills Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, all of which she was very active.
Esther was a hard working woman and was the best cow milker in the south Ashby area, and always raised a huge garden to help feed the family. She worked several years for Charley’s Market, and, later, as a teacher aide at the Ashby Grade School.
Esther was preceded in death by her husband, Gerald Boots; parents, Otto and Alpha Hoffman; brothers, Albert, Richard, William and James Hoffman and sister, Doris Lynch ; son, Leroy Boots and grandson, Thomas (Stub) Boots.
She is survived by her sons, Richard Boots(Lucie) of Mullen NE, Rodney Boots( Mabel) of Ashby, N; daughter, Ellen White (Tom) of Ashby, NE; daughter-in-law, Linda Boots of Alliance, NE; twelve grandchildren, John, Mike and Wayne Boots, Eileen Bonin, Tony Boots, Tonya Folk, Nocona Boots, Jeff White, Kristi Kroeger, Justin and Darin Boots, and Kendra Rambat; twenty-one great-grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren; two sisters-in-law, Ramona Dorris of Keystone, NE, and Elizabeth Bette Boots of Perth Australia, and numerous nieces , nephews and friends.
Memorials may be given to the Ashby Congregational Church, Sandhills Chapter DAR or charity of the donor’s choice.
Funeral services will be held October 2, 2017, at the Ashby Congregational Church in Ashby, NE, with Pastor Roy Monahan officiating. Burial will be in the Hyannis Cemetery. Visitation with the family present will be Sunday from 1-4 p.m. at the Bates-Gould Funeral Home in Alliance.
Online condolences may be left at www.batesgould.com