Mother of the Year

HARTINGTON — Doris Feilmeier is not one who seeks the spotlight.

In fact, when her daughter, Sheila Ulrich, informed her she was going to nominate the Hartington woman for a Mother of the Year award, Feilmeier wasn’t going for it.

As mothers will do, she put her foot down, so to speak.

But her other seven children chimed in and Feilmeier reluctantly filled out the paperwork required from her to accompany the nomination, answering questions about how she was raised and how she raised her own children.

“This isn’t me,” Feilmeier said. “There are so many others that are much more worthy. I don’t need recognition. You know, I haven’t taken care of a disabled child or donated an organ or anything like that. I just thought I’m not deserving.”

So, it came as quite a shock when it was announced that she won the 2021 Nebraska Mother of the Year Award by American Mothers Inc.

Along with honorees from across the United States, Feilmeier will be recognized at the American Mothers Inc. national convention in May.

She will also serve as an ambassador for Nebraska’s mothers during visits with members of Congress. One honoree will be named the National Mother of the Year during the convention.

Feilmeier grew up on a farm going to a country school with eight grades in one room. She came from a family of eight other siblings. All the children were expected to help with meals, laundry, cleaning, milking and other outside chores. They were taught to cook and bake at home as well as care for the younger siblings.

After graduating from high school, Doris moved to Lincoln to work in a bank. After a couple of years, she returned home to marry her high school sweetheart, Duane.

They bought a farm just south of Hartington and raised eight children: Ulrich of Hartington; David, Norfolk; Paul, Norfolk; Michael, Hartington; Angela Blum, Brookshire, Texas; Robert, Omaha; Crystal Haase, Norfolk; and Jeff, Hartington.

“I don’t know how single parents do it,” Feilmeier said. “I couldn’t have done it without my husband, Duane. There were two of us. He is my right-hand person.”

While farming and raising children, she held down various jobs — caring for the elderly in a nursing home, in the school cafeteria, and as a home healthcare worker. She currently has been managing the Farmer’s Union co-op service station for the last 19 years and added a second service station — Wiebelhaus Service, Fordyce — to that workload nine years ago.

Feilmeier’s hobbies include quilting, baking, and spending time outdoors.

But her devotion to family has always been her top priority and her go-to on how she prefers to spend her time, especially now with 24 grandchildren and another on the way.

One of her favorite things to say is, “The day is what you make it. You can either have a bad day or a good day ... Your choice.”

And she remembers leading the children through some difficult days. But there were more good days than bad, she said, with memories that will last a lifetime.

“The kids have been so good to us. I’m so proud of every one of them. They are such hardworking kids,” she said. “The hard lessons, the achievements they did, the fun stories - it’s such a thing that you could never ever take away.”

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