FREMONT - Mildred O. Kish, of Oak Harbor, Ohio, a former beautician who sold insurance for the Columbia National Insurance Co. for 20 years, died yesterday in the Bethesda Care Center, Fremont. She was 87.

A family member did not know the cause of death, but said Ms. Kish had suffered from congestive heart failure and other ailments recently.

Kerry Stuart, one of Ms. Kish's three daughters, said she admired her mother for her determination to keep the family together after a divorce.

"Her goal was to keep us five kids together," Ms. Stuart said. "My father wanted to split us up and put us in orphanages. My mother sacrificed everything to raise us five kids. She devoted her life to all five of us. Nobody could ask for anything more in a mother. She was the best. She still is the best."

Ms. Kish was born in Waterville in 1919 to Asher and Carrie Studer.

The family eventually moved to Grand Rapids, Ohio, and Ms. Kish later attended beautician school in Toledo.

Ms. Kish and her husband ran a grain mill in Grand Rapids.

"She was the last person to run that mill as an actual operating grain mill," Ms. Stuart said. "My father and mother owned it, but mom was the one who actually had the experience because she was raised on a farm and had been around a lot of grain mills."

Ms. Stuart said her mother worked several jobs to help support the family.

For 20 years, she worked as an insurance agent in Ohio for the Columbia National Insurance Co. and was in their Top 12 sales group.

She also was a sales clerk for Gray Drugs in Fremont.

"She was very hard-working lady. She had a very good sense of humor. Even in the last three months when she was in the process of dying, she still had her sense of humor," Ms. Stuart said.

She said her mother was an avid reader and was always interested in learning new things.

Ms. Kish received help raising her children from other family members in the Grand Rapids area.

"We had a close-knit family who we saw a lot of and helped out a lot in taking care of us kids," Ms. Stuart said.

"She had this determination and kindness to help other people. She never had a bad word to say about anybody."

Surviving are her daughters, Lois Hoffman, Marjorie Eckhardt, and Kerry Stuart; sons, Dan and Asher Weaver; brother, Willis Studer; 11 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the Wright Funeral Home, Grand Rapids, where visitation will be after 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The family suggests tributes to the American Cancer Society.

First Published May 29, 2006, 8:33 a.m.