A German woman who escaped Allied bombing in World War II overcame communist oppression to pursue her dream of performing modern dance.

Katharine Sehnert, Inge, as she was called in her youth, has realized that dream, last year performing in the United States, Mexico and South America as part of a world tour.

Sehnert was mentioned in a recent column by her second cousin, retired McCook baker Walt Sehnert, who writes a weekly column, "From Days Gone By," in the Gazette.

Katharine, enjoying a joke about her weariness over watching American football on television, was guest of honor at an afternoon coffee at Sehnert's Bieroc Cafe, now operated by her second-cousin once removed, Matt Sehnert.

Walt wrote about her parents' resourcefulness in supporting her after she escaped to the West, by trading support for the East German child of another couple who also had gone to the West.

But he didn't know all of her stories, and his cousin, in halting but clear English, filled in more of the blanks.

One afternoon when she was 6, Katharine decided to sneak home from school - why, she doesn't know. A short way away, the air raid sirens began to scream, and soldiers scolded her for being on the street. Falling bombs destroyed the school, killing her classmates.

Because East German authorities would not let her pursue her dream of dancing, Katharine decided to escape to the West. Boarding a train, she slipped off in West Berlin, with guards apparently mistaking her for a worker returning from her job in East Berlin.

Later, with almost 1,000 East Germans per day escaping, authorities put up the Berlin Wall over night.

Like his cousins, Oscar Sehnert, Katharine's grandfather, owned the bakery in Erfurt, Germany, their hometown. His son, also named Oscar, was Katharine's father, and also a baker. Katharine inherited the bakery from her grandfather, but should have had it confiscated after she fled to the West.

However, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany, she found that the government had never formally done so. That mistake helped her regain the property relatively easily, avoiding years of legal struggles that others in similar situations have endured before regaining property.

Now living in Cologne, Germany, Katharine has gained considerable recognition as a dancer, choreographer and a dance teacher. She also was featured in a recent video shown at a dance festival in Holland, and studied dance in Japan.

For their 50th anniversary, Katharine presented Walt and Jean Sehnert a family heirloom silver tray, as well as a cookie mold from from the bakery in Germany.

Friends who attended the coffee at the Bieroc Cafe were treated to her version of an almond bread dish which might find its way onto the McCook bakery's menu, strengthening the German-American Sehnert tradition.