Emma Eileen Van Pelt

EMMA EILEEN VAN PELT Funeral services for longtime Cortez resident, Emma Eileen Van Pelt will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 17 at the Ertel Memorial Chapel. Interment will follow at the Summit Ridge Cemetery. A visitation has been scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Ertel Chapel from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m. Emma was born on July 27, 1924 in Spalding, Neb. the daughter of Ernest Lewellyn and Edna Edith (Harsin) Pratt. She passed away on Wednesday, January 7, 2015 at the Southwest Memorial Hospital at the age of 90. Emma was a homemaker and also worked on their family ranch. Emma enjoyed the outdoors, she had a large garden for many years and milked a cow. They lived on Summit Ridge Preceding Emma in death are her husband, Howard Van Pelt; daughter, Judy Gilpin; son, Hoyt Van Pelt; her mother and father, Edna and Ernest Pratt; siblings, Edith Freeman, Hazel Ross, Helen King, June Pratt, Ernest Pratt, Dallas Pratt and Clyde Pratt. Surviving Emma are her children, Sheryl Benson and husband, Gary of Alamosa, Colo., Monty Van Pelt and wife, Sheila of Cortez; eight grandchildren, several great grandchildren; siblings, Virginia Purvis and husband, John of North Carolina, Wayne Pratt and wife, Frances of Arkansas and Dean Pratt and wife, Rhonda of Seattle, Wash.; as well as nieces and nephews.