Obit: Ulness, Jeanette Ovedia #2 (1925 - 1946)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Ulness, Hagness, Stokes, Rosen, Orlikowski, Steinbring, Thompson, Melling, Riphenburg, Wathke

----Source: Eau Claire Leader (Eau Claire Co., WI) 01/1946

(28 September 1925 - 13 January 1946)

The body of Miss Jeanette Ulness, 20, of Osseo, daughter of Julius Ulness, Osseo and Mrs. Julius Ulness, Eau Claire, was found in a driveway of the Edward Hagness Home, 1 ½ miles southwest of Foster (Eau Claire County) at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Coroner Wallace Stokes said Miss Ulness froze to death apparently while in a diabetic coma. A postmortem was performed at Luther Hospital by Dr. Theodore Rosen, pathologist, the coroner said. The body was taken to the Oftedahl Funeral Home at Osseo.

The body was discovered by Alfred Orlikowski, Osseo the driver of a Foster Creamery milk truck. Authorities were notified and the coroner, accompanied by Sheriff Ray Kuhlman and District Attorney Henry Steinbring, went to the scene and conducted an investigation. The temperature was about 6 below zero at the time.

It was learned that Miss Ulness, accompanied by Howard Thompson, 31, route 1 Osseo, Emil Melling, 708 Menomonie Street, Eau Claire and Evelyn Riphenburg, 16, Osseo, were guests at the Melling farm near Foster late Saturday night. The farm is occupied by Rinehard Wathke, a bachelor. The two men picked the girls up at an Osseo tavern. Stokes said, and after stopping at two other taverns and purchasing a case of beer, went to the Melling farm.

According to the story told authorities by Thompson, Melling and Miss Riphenburg, they arrived at the farm about 1 a.m. Sunday. About 3 a.m. Miss Ulness, they said, left the house for no apparent reason. Sometime later, Wathke, worried by her absence, drove some distance looking for her but he turned right at a road junction and, seeing nothing of her, returned to the house. Tracks indicated that Miss Ulness turned left at the junction and was apparently on her way to the Hagness home when seized by the diabetic attack.

(The above obituary was received from a friend, of Osseo, WI, who received it from L. E. Phillips Memorial Library in Eau Claire. He also relates that from Ancestry.com he found this: Jeanette Ovedia Ulness was born in Humbird, Wisconsin, USA on 28 September 1925 and was the daughter of Julius Ole Ulness and Gladys Irene Holt, and she died on 13 January 1946, at Osseo, Wisconsin, USA. She is buried at the South Beaver River Lutheran Church Cemetery, 7 ½ miles south east of Osseo, in Jackson County Town of Garfield.)

(Additional Note provided by Bill Gilbertson)

Please add the following which was taken from the January 10, 1946 edition of The Tri-County News in Osseo, WI. Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at Oftedahl's Funeral Home and at the South Beef River Church. Burial was in the church cemetery.

Thanks, Bill.