Martina "Sue" Sue Polk

A WHOLE LOT OF LIFE One of the good things about growing up in a large extended family is that it seems like there are always new babies being born. There’s another thing about growing up in a large extended family that at first doesn’t seem as good, and yet it is very much part of it all – you go to a lot of funerals. So now we gather to honor the life and death of Sue Polk, who died in Omaha on Jan. 16, 2025, at the age of 86. Martina Sue Offenburger was born Dec. 6, 1938, the sixth of eight children of Herman and Anna Offenburger, in Shenandoah, Iowa. She had dozens of cousins. Eventually she had 16 nieces and nephews. A whole lot of life there. At Shenandoah High School, she was an outstanding drummer in the marching band, editor of the yearbook, and a lifeguard at the local swimming pool. “Sue was always just a joy to be around,” said her SHS Class of 1956 classmate Dick Hunt, who became the longest-serving mayor in the community’s history. On one of her last days, Sue was telling stories about her longtime friends, and of Hunt, she said, “He was a dandy!” After her death, he reciprocated. “Sometimes us athletes needed help dealing with some of our teachers, and yes, I’m talking about Miss Keenan,” Hunt said. “Sue would be kind of a buffer for us guys when we’d be going into Miss Keenan’s American government class. I’d always take a seat in the back of the room, and Miss Keenan would say, ‘Dick, you might as well come on up here and take a chair in front, because you’ll wind up here anyway.’ Sue would smooth things over. Everybody liked Sue. And I never heard her say a bad word about, or not want to associate with, anybody in our class.” She went on to Creighton University in Omaha, where she met, fell in love with and married Quillie H. “Bud” Polk, a young airman from Savannah, Georgia, then stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. His military career eventually had them stationed at a half-dozen bases in the U.S. and for a time in Okinawa, before they re-entered civilian life and settled in Elkhorn, on the west edge of the Omaha metropolitan area. Bud worked for the Omaha World-Herald, then Hastings College’s Foundation. Sue served as a secretary and personnel specialist for the Elkhorn Public Schools, and both were very active in service and activities at St. Patrick Catholic Church. Bud died in 2018 at the age of 81. Sue and Bud had four children – David Polk, now of Lexington, S.C.; Beth Ginger, of Omaha; Michael Polk, also of Omaha, and Christopher Polk, of Seattle. They’ve always been, and still are, as full of life as their parents always were. There was a special reflection of that love of life that the Polks all shared, when Sue was in her final weeks at the Elk Ridge Village Assisted Living and Memory Care facility. Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, a day after her birthday, 36 of us from the extended family gathered at Elk Ridge to celebrate with her. Conversations over lunch were lively and loud. Then when it came time to sing “Happy Birthday” to Sue, our party was suddenly crashed by four “gingerbread people’’ wearing inflated costumes that made them 8 feet tall. In the costumes were Sue’s grown kids – now all grandparents but hardly acting like it – who led the rest of us in singing. When the costumes were abandoned and calm returned to the party room, that’s when a beautiful moment happened. “Mom, congratulations, you are now 86 years old,” her oldest son David began, speaking loud enough so we could all hear. “That’s a good long life, a whole lot of years.” He paused. “But I want to give you something more to think about,” he continued. “If you take the four of us who are your children and add up our ages, it comes to 245 years. And when you think about it, you Mom are directly responsible for our 245 years of life. And there’s more. “If you take our 245 years and add the lives of your 15 grandchildren and your 23 great- grandchildren, the total is 865 years of human life. And it all happened because of you!” A huge cheer and applause erupted in the party room. That’s how it is in large extended families – a whole lot of life and, of course, the occasional death. We cry in happiness and cheer the new births. We cry in sadness and pray when one of us dies. And at our funerals, it never takes long before one of us will reflect on the person who has just passed, and then say something like Sue’s youngest sister Chris Werner, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, recently said of Sue, “Wasn’t she fun!” Sue was preceded in death by her parents, husband Bud Polk, one sister and four brothers. She is survived by sons and daughters-in-law David and Lisa Polk of Lexington, S.C., Michael Polk and Liz McIlree of Omaha, and Christopher and Deena Polk of Seattle, daughter and son-in-law Beth and Teb Ginger of Omaha, 15 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren; a brother and sister-in-law Chuck Offenburger and Mary Riche of Des Moines, and sister and brother-in-law Chris and Karl Werner of Cedar Rapids. A memorial mass will be held at 10:30am Friday, February 28, 2025, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Elkhorn. Visitation will be Thursday, Feb. 27 at Reichmuth Funeral Home, Elkhorn from 5-7 PM with a Wake service at 7 PM. Interment will take place at a later date at Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Elkhorn. Memorials may be made to St. Patrick’s of Elkhorn.

Martina "Sue" Sue Polk

December 6, 1938 - January 16, 2025