Surnames: Opelt, Erdmann, Burfeind, Zschemitz, Thomas, Fitzmaurice, McDonough, Schaefer

----Sources: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood County, Wis.) Tue, May 3, 2005

Opelt, Ruth Pearl (24 Feb. 1929 - 1 May 2005)

NEILLSVILLE - Ruth Pearl Opelt, 76, of Neillsville died Sunday, May 1, 2005, at the Memorial Medical Center in Neillsville.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 4, 2005, at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Neillsville. Interment will be in Dells Dam Cemetery in the town of Levis.

Visitation will be from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. today at Gesche Funeral Home and from 10 a.m. until service time Wednesday at the church.

She was born Feb. 24, 1929, in Stockton, Minn., the daughter of Walter F. and LaVita (Erdmann) Burfeind. Ruth was united in marriage to Kenneth Opelt on Nov. 17, 1949, at the Zion Lutheran Church in LaValle. They lived in the Madison area for a couple of months and then moved to Neillsville, where they farmed and raised their 13 children.

Ruth is survived by her husband, Kenneth; 12 children, Steven (Pixie) Opelt and Eugene (Carol) Opelt, all of Neillsville, Gayle (Becky) Opelt, Grants Pass, Ore., Kevin (Donna) Opelt, Alan Opelt, Darlene (Joel) Zschernitz, Rollin (Gail) Opelt, Dawn (Greg) Thoma, Russell (Jill) Opelt, Darla (Gary) Fitzmaurice, and Douglas (Lori) Opelt, all of Neillsville, and Donna (Paul) McDonough, Plum City; 36 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; one sister, Audrey Schaefer, Reedsburg; and one brother, Lyle (Betty) Burfeind, Wonewoc.