Obit: Gardner, Ella Amelia (1914 - 2007)

Contact: Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Gardner, Haines, Goeser, Liebzeit, Phillips, Kogurt

----Sources: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood Co., Wis.) Saturday, 15 Sept. 2007

Gardner, Ella Amelia (1914 - 11 Sept. 2007)

MADISON -- Ella Amelia Gardner, 93, died peacefully Sept. 11, 2007, at her residence in the Independent Living Retirement Center, Madison, Wisconsin.

Born in 1914 to Gina and Robert Haines near Montfort in Grant County, she graduated from Granton High School in 1932, earned a teaching certificate from Neillsville in 1933, and taught for two years at Kurth Rural School (eight grades) in Clark County. Ella attended summer school at the Chicago Art Institute in 1936 and felt a lifelong identity as an artist.

In 1937, she married Russell Robert Gardner, another rural grade-school teacher. Offspring include Russell Jr., Wayne Stanley and Keith Allen. Ella and her husband operated a Clark County dairy farm for 41 years, then relocated close to Marshfield in 1983. She enjoyed traveling with family. Ella loved flowers and other plants all of her life. Interested in politics, she worked regularly at the polls during elections. She renovated a house in Marshfield, where she lived before moving to Madison last year to be near Russell Jr. and his wife, Suzanne.

Her art career began formally in 1964, after her youngest son graduated from high school. She participated actively in the Wisconsin Regional Arts Program and exhibited her work at the Central Wisconsin State Fair in Marshfield regularly for 40 years. In 1998, she published a book, "A Celebration of Life," which featured paintings and drawings with personal and family narratives. Ella's art was exhibited in solo shows in Granton, Neillsville, Marshfield, Menomonie, Wisconsin Rapids, Fort Atkinson and Madison. She felt honored to be included in Marquis "Who's Who of American Women" and the "Archives of The National Museum of Women in the Arts."

She was preceded in death by her husband; son, Keith; parents; and sister, Rebecca Goeser.

She is survived by Russell Jr. (Suzanne) and Wayne (Ane); five grandchildren, Rebecca Jordan (Jon), Linda Gardner Phillips (Rick), and Martha (Amy Kogut), Robert (Anna) and Benjamin Gardner; seven great-grandchildren; and siblings, Francis (Evelyn), Glenn (Nita) and Gene Haines and Anne Liebzeit.

A memorial gathering will be at 11 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007, at the Belvedere Supper Club, Highway 97 North, Marshfield.