Singer and pianist, Ethel Dorner, is also know as a wonderful teacher, wife and mother.  

In high school Ethel started taking piano lessons from Doris Nickles, who became her teacher for many years. She played the organ once and a while for a Lutheran church nearby when the regular lady was unable to.

Ethel loved playing the piano but also had a love for singing. Ever Saturday she traveled to Wisner, Nebraska to take singing lessons.

“I loved to sing,” Ethel said, “at that time in my life I could go to high C and then to E above that. And that’s why I took music lessons.”  She began to sing for weddings, funerals, church services, and anyone who wanted her to sing for some sort of function. “I belonged to Eastern Star and also The Shriners. I was their soloist for six years.”

This August Ethel celebrated her 100th birthday with friends and family. The party took place at the Ramada Plaza on 28th street. During the celebration Ethel was escorted to the stage where she played a few of her favorite pieces on the piano.

Ethel had six brothers and two sisters. She was the oldest of the girls born on Aug. 2, 1908 in West Point, Neb. Ethel’s mother contracted pneumonia while carrying her youngest sister Camilla. Because of this after Camilla was born she endured many serious health issues and problems. Ethel’s parents tried to protect Camilla and didn’t send her to school very often. Ethel cries sometimes when she talks about her sister.

“One of the saddest things was to see Camilla growing up. She was always very small and weak,” Ethel said. “She was in school but didn’t go very often. She couldn’t really talk, but she was a good little girl.”

Camilla died when she was about 11 years old.

Ethel remembers some happier times as a child. In the winter, she would go down to the city park in West Point with her brothers and sisters to go ice-skating. Ethel enjoyed ice-skating with them and says she was pretty good.

One summer Ethel drove all the way out to California to live with her grandmother and attend school at the University of Southern California for the summer semester. Ethel taught country school for three years where she was living in Nebraska. She decided to get her degree in elementary education and ended up going to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln where she obtained a degree.

Ethel met her husband, Edger A. Dorner, when she was attending school in Freemont, Neb. Edger gave a talk for the ladies of the school and Ethel sang at that service. She said that right after the service he asked her to go out with him on a date and they continued to date after that. They got married on Feb. 15, 1931.

Edger was a Chaplin for the Army and pastured a church in Nebraska. Ethel said that sometimes families in the congregation would pay them with chickens or eggs because they were from a farming community and didn’t always have a lot of money. The army stationed Edger in Germany one year so Ethel and their children went with him. They didn’t fly, but traveled on a boat to get to Germany. It took them about two weeks to get there. While they were in Germany Ethel taught American children at a nearby school there.

“I had three kids, two boys and a girl,” Ethel said. Her daughter Nancy’s birthday has special meaning to Ethel. “She was born the same day, but a different year than me.” 

Ethel now has seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Much of her family is still very involved in her life. Her son Kenneth, grandchildren, David and Jeff, and her great-grandchildren, Annabelle, Gabriel, and Aaron all come to visit her at least once a week at different times. She is very thankful that she has such involved family that still include her in parts of their lives.