Obit: Decker, Josephine (1889 - 1951)

Contact: Linda Mertens

Email: mertens@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Source - Anna Johnson's Scrapbook

Josephine Decker (16 June 1889 - 10 December 1951)

All surviving children and brothers and sisters attended funeral services here last Thursday, Dec. 13, for Mrs. Josephine Decker, resident of this community for nearly 40 years. The Rev. Father M. J. Kelnhofer, pastor, officiated at the rites in St. Louis Catholic church at 9:15 a. m., and burial was in Dorchester Memorial cemetery. Pallbearers were H. M. Heindl, Joseph Geiger, Anton Younker, Joseph Dess, Max Wilke, and Herman Wilke. Fuchsgruber Funeral Service had charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Decker, 62, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Francis Thull, Marinette, where she was visiting, last week Monday, Dec. 10, at 12:40 p. m. A heart condition was the cause.

She lay in state at the Cyril Decker home, where rosaries were said at 8:15 and 9 Wednesday evening, the latter by the Christian Mother's Society of which she was a member.

Josephine Britten was born June 16, 1889, at Black Creek, this state, and received her education there. There, also, she and Theodore Decker were married on Feb. 4, 1907. They resided in the Black Creek community until 1912, when they moved here, settling on a farm northwest of this village, in the Town of Mayville, operating it until recent years. Mr. Decker died in 1944, and in 1945 Mrs. Decker sold the place to her son Cyril. Since then she had been making her home with her children.

Survivors include three sons and five daughters, Urban Decker, Marengo, Ill.; Marie (Mrs. Clarence Ellenbecker) Butler; Veronica (Mrs. Alvar Carlborn) Athens; Leone (Mrs. Gerald Donahoe), Omaha, Neb.; Sylvester Decker, Pontiac, Mich.; Cyril Decker, Dorchester; Lucille (Mrs. Francis Thull) Marinette; Exilda (Mrs. Stanley Seiminski), Menominee, Mich ; 21 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Also surviving are two brothers and two sisters, Mrs. Mary Kranzush and Martin Britten, Kaukauna; Leo Britten and Mrs. Thekla Nowak, Wausau.

One child, a daughter, died in infancy, and two brothers, William and Henry Britten, and a sister, Mrs. Matt Barth, preceded her in death.