Surnames: Kehrberg, Pitz, Haeuser, Patton, Schmelzel

----Source: Loyal TRG 27 February 2008

Kehrberg, Wilbur M. (4 APR 1920 - 21 FEB 2008)

Wilbur M. Kehrberg, 87, Appleton, formerly of Loyal, passed away on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, at Brewster Village, Appleton. Funeral services were held at 11 a.m., on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008, at Trinity Lutheran Church, Loyal. The Rev. Daniel Zimmerman officiated. Burial followed in the Greenwood City Cemetery.

Wilbur Melvin Kehrberg was born on April 4, 1920, in Loyal, to Gerhardt and Cornelia (nee Pitz) Kehrberg. He was raised in Loyal, where he attended Loyal Grade School and Loyal High School, graduating in 1938. He attended the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse for one year. His military service began in the summers of 1938 and 1939, with training at Ft. Snelling, Minn. He enlisted in the regular Army in August 1941. In April of 1942, he was assigned to the 7th Infantry Battalion Combat Engineers, part of the Fifth Division and part of Patton’s Third Army. After spending a year in Iceland, he split the rest of his Army career between Ireland, England, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia and Austria, where he built and demolished bridges, removed beach mines and dismantled German road mines. He arrived on Utah Beach on July 9, 1944. After his discharge from the Army at the end of the war, he began work with his father. He married Audrey Haeuser on June 14, 1947. Except for one year spent in Phoenix. Ariz., he worked at and ran Kehrberg’s Variety Store in Loyal from 1949 until 1991.

[Postcard of the W. M. Kehrberg Five & Dime]

He enjoyed golf, photography, fishing in Canada with his buddies, boating, and his cottage near Greenwood. He sang barbershop for a number of years and was an active member of the VFW and the Loyal American Legion Post #175, where he was a member for more than 40 years. He was a member of the Rotary Club, the Loyal Chamber of Commerce, where he served on the board of directors, and was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church.

He will be missed by two sons, Dr. Mark (Dee) Kehrberg, Oshkosh, and Randy (Deborah) Kehrberg, Woodside, Calif.; two daughters, Susan (Ward) Patton, Appleton, and Beth Ann (Scott) Schmelzel, Belleville, Ill.; and six grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Audrey, on Aug 4, 1991; two brothers, Clarence Kehrberg and Douglas Kehrberg in infancy; and one sister, Marie Kehrberg in infancy.

The family requests memorials be made in support of the area Alzheimer’s care or at Brewster Village, Appleton.

Cuddie Funeral Home, Loyal, assisted the family with arrangements.