A Celebration of Life Service for Stanley J. Lambert, age 92, of Chambers, will be 10:00 A.M., Friday, January 13, 2017, at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Rural Chambers, NE.

Burial will be in the Valley View Cemetery, with Military Rites by Chambers American Legion Post #320.

Visitation will be Thursday, January 12, 2017, from 5-7 P.M., with a 7:00 P.M. Prayer Service at Biglin's Mortuary in O'Neill.

Pastor Karen Larson will officiate.

Stanley Joe Lambert died peacefully Jan 5, 2017 surrounded by loving family, at Neligh Care and Rehabilitation Center after a long battle with Parkinson's.

Stan was born to Carl and Ida Lambert on Halloween, October 31, 1924, at Martha, Nebraska, in their farm home's southeast bedroom.

Stan attended Martha rural grade school through the tenth grade, graduating from Ewing High School in 1941. He then took Normal Training and taught at Martha, District #134.

Uncle Sam sent him a draft call in 1943. He trained briefly with the Army Air Corp before being "deflated' by the infantry's dire need for soldiers. His basic training was in Camp Adair, Oregon. His unit 275- I Co, of the 70th Division was shipped to Europe. The Trailblazers were ambushed near Phillipsburg, France, December 31, 1944. Many were killed. Stan was captured on New Year's Day, 1945 and spent four and a half months as a POW of the Third Reich. Most of that time was spent in a forced labor camp, Lilienstein lager, about 30 miles south of Dresden near the Czech border. He was liberated and reunited with U.S. forces in mid-May.


After an honorable discharge, Stan, a Regents' scholar, entered the University of Nebraska College of Agriculture on the GI bill. He excelled academically and as a leader, receiving many honors.  He was a member and officer of Farm House Fraternity, and enjoyed singing high tenor in the Farm House Quartet, which has reunited every summer since. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in the spring of 1950 with a Bachelor's degree in Animal Science.

On June 10, 1951, he married his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bowman. They celebrated 65 years of marriage in June 2016 by sharing home grown strawberries and ice cream with family and all the residents and staff of Neligh Care Center.

Stan taught On the Farm Training class in the Chambers area, and farmed the home place, which his grandfather L. G. Lambert had homesteaded in 1883.

He served on many organizational boards, including ESU #8, Chambers School board, PCA, REA, Holt County Co-op board, Fair board and as the Martha 4-H leader for several decades.

Stan was a tenacious member of American Legion Post # 320, serving as post and area commander. Memorial Day and military funerals were an honor to coordinate. One of the last civic historic projects he saw to fruition was gathering funds to erect a monument in Valley View Cemetery honoring the Black settlers of the Goose Lake area in south Holt County.

It was a great pleasure for Stan and Dorothy and family to be involved in the 70th Division Infantry Association, its Return to Europe tours, plus national and regional reunions.

Stan was an avid Bible student, a lifelong member, officer, and teacher at Bethany Presbyterian Church, serving on many Presbytery committees, and representing Central Nebraska Presbytery as a delegate to the 1991 General assembly in Baltimore.

Hobbies included constant reading of history, biography, and current events. He was involved in the Democratic party and served as a Nebraska delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1976. He enjoyed Toastmasters, public speaking, storytelling, writing his WWII memoirs and Wilbur stories. He enjoyed sports as a participant and fan.

He restored a 1925 Model-T truck which he drove for many family gatherings and public parades, donning his red and white overalls for the Chambers Fourth of July. He liked to weld, refinish, and transform antiques.

Stan loved music. He soloed or sang duets with his brother Tom for numerous funerals, weddings, and other occasions. In later years, he sang many duets with his daughter. He helped organize and sing in community choruses. He enjoyed Chambers and UNL band concerts.

Stan lived his faith. He carried out his resolve to make the community, state, nation, and world a better place for everyone! He will be missed.

He is preceded in death by his parents, brothers Jean and Tom Lambert, sisters Virginia Wadsworth and Luciel LaRue.

He is survived by his wife Dorothy, sister Betty Goranson, sons Frank and wife Leslie, Tim and wife Kerrie, and daughter Linda Lambert, five grandsons, three granddaughters, one great grandson, many nieces and nephews, relatives and friends, five Barred Rock hens, a rooster named Reuben, and and his special friend, a cat named Delmar.

Memorials may be designated to Molly's Miracle Makers, mollysmiraclemakers.com to fight childhood cancer. The family will donate to the 70th Division Trailblazer Scholarship Fund at a later date.