Obit: Accola, LaVerne N. (1919 - 2006)

Contact: Crystal Wendt
Email:  crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Accola, Miller, Mousseau, Jensen, Redtzke, Kleinstick, Pitt, Perkins, Brazill, Schroeder, Muir

----Sources: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood Co., Wis.) February 11, 2006

Accola, LaVerne N. (12 Sept. 1919 - 9 Feb. 2006)

LaVerne N. Accola

LaVerne N. Accola, 86, a former Pittsville resident, died Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006, at Miller's Country Care, Fenwood. Dave and Kathy Miller, the owners of the assisted living center, gave wonderful loving care the last days of our mother's life, and the family is forever indebted to them and our father who was at her side until the end for helping to usher our mother from this world to the next in the most comfortable and dignified way possible.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, 2006, at Rembs/Kundinger Funeral Home. Presiding at the services will be Ray Miller, Peter Mousseau and Darin Jensen.

The visitation will be held from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. Sunday and from 11:30 a.m. until service time Monday, both at the funeral home.

Burial will be in the Brooklawn Memory Gardens Cemetery in the town of Richfield, Wood County.

LaVerne was born on Sept. 12, 1919, on a farm in the Colby-Abbotsford area. She was the first child of Richard and Martha (Redtzke) Kleinstick. She graduated eighth grade from a Colby area country school. She and Donald Accola were married Oct. 24, 1946, in Wausau, after he returned from World War II. They honeymooned in Chicago and came to a Pittsville-area farm on Highway 73 and lived there until later years, when declining health caused them to move to Miller's Country Care Home.

LaVerne was a wife and mother of four children who also helped with the farming. Everyone referred to her as "Mama." She was generous, kind-hearted, unselfish, loving and cared about others. She was creative, a photographer, gave comforting hugs, sweet smiles and huge grins. She demonstrated complete devotion to her husband and God, being supportive, encouraging, honest and sensitive. She was truly a mother, not a mother-in-law.

The visual imagery of the past tells a lot about her. Molasses cookies, picking lilacs, homemade donuts, a warm farm kitchen by the cook stove, baby chicks, ice cold homemade lemonade, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, beautifully decorated wedding and birthday cakes, hanging clothes on the line washed in a wringer washer with lye soap, rose and flower photographs. In short, Mama was who anyone would want for a mother or a grandmother, but the interesting thing is that she really never really believed how wonderful she was and how much we appreciated her because of her humility. Thank you, Mama, for the memories. Our lives were shaped by you more than you could have realized while on this earth. Now, from your vantage point in heaven, we think you see what you did for all of us. Because of your faith in God that you lived and gave to us, we will be able to be with you someday.

LaVerne is survived by her husband, Donald; and by her children, Larry (Nancy) Accola of Eau Claire, Adele Pitt of Milwaukee, Conrad (Mary) Accola of Vesper and Harlan (Brenda) Accola of Marshfield.

She is also survived by her grandchildren, Matthew (Kerry) Accola, Duluth, Minn., Justin (Sara) Accola of Austin, Texas, Shannon Accola of Minneapolis, Ashleigh Accola of Bellingham, Wash., Nathan Pitt of Little Diomede Island, Alaska, Sara (Tim) Perkins of Collinsville, Ill., Jasmine (Joe) Brazill of Seattle, Seth Pitt of Austin, Texas, Melinda (Brian) Schroeder of Milwaukee, Megan Accola of La Crosse, and Benjamin Accola, Joshua Accola, Luke Accola and Isaac Accola, all of Marshfield.

She is further survived by her great-grandchildren, Mariah Perkins, Austin Perkins and Oliver Accola; and by her brothers, Norman (Vivian) Kleinstick of Medford, Raymond Kleinstick of Edgar and Arvid Kleinstick of Edgar; and a sister, Mildred Muir of Marshall.

She was preceded in death by her parents; a son-in-law, Clinton Pitt; and two sisters-in-law, Loretta Kleinstick and Marjorie Kleinstick; and a brother-in-law, Rick Muir.