Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Butterbrodt, Struensee
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 6/06/2018
Butterbrodt, Luella (100th Birthday – 24 February 2019)
Luella Butterbrodt, left, shared a laugh with Neillsville Care and Rehabilitation Center worker Carol Struensee. Butterbrodt will celebrate her 100th birthday in February 2019. (Scott Schultz/The Clark County Press)
Luella keeps smiling through life of work and happiness
By Scott Schultz
(Editor’s note: This is an occasional feature in which older area residents share their stories.)
A smile crosses Luella Butterbrodt’s face as she tells a visitor her age.
It’s one of many smiles that cross her face in a short conversation about her life that started on Feb. 24, 1919, a couple miles southeast of Loyal.
She tells about early years of attending the Mack School along the 26 Road, just round the corner from her Young family’s Pelsdorf farm on which she was born.
The nearness of the school to her home gave her at least one advantage over the school’s other students.
“I would run home for my dinner,” she said.
Luella graduated from Loyal High School in 1936 and started working as a clerk in Loyal stores. She notes that, at the time, Loyal had four grocery stores.
Then, when she was 20, she went to Chicago and found work at Republic Tool and Die.
“That was a good-paying job,” she said about her work at Republic.
She was working at the factory on Dec. 7, 1941, the day Japanese armed forces bombed Pearl Harbor.
The plant’s work was shifted to making big drills used in building airplanes for World War II.
“They paid the good wages, but my parents wanted me to come home at Christmas,” she said.
Luella returned to home and, on April 25, 1942, married Bill Butterbrodt of Greenwood.
The newlyweds purchased a farm along State Highway 98 between Loyal and Greenwood. There, they raised their children Charles and Janet.
Luella smiles as she notes that she has four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
The Butterbrodt’s farmed along State Highway 98 for 33 years, milking about 50 cows.
“It was a lot of hard work,” Luella said.
Bill had a heart attack along the way, which took him out of the farm’s work.
“He was only 62 when he had the heart attack,” Luella said.
Charles took over the farm’s operation with Luella.
In 2000, Luella and Bill moved into Loyal’s Hometown Village apartments. Bill died on Oct. 11, 2004.
“We were married 63 years,” Luella said.
She’s been living in Neillsville during the past three years.
“I lived there until I broke my right hip in 2015 and have lived at Memorial Home (Neillsville Care and Rehabilitation) since,” Luella said.
Luella also broke her left hip four years ago. The hip fractures have slowed her physically, but she’s full of wit and smiles.
“They give me good care here, and are so friendly,” Luella said.
