Bio: Hoeper, Bill (Retires from Funeral Home – Jan 1973)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Hoeper, Maurina, Kraut

---------Source: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 11 Jan 1973

"There is a lot of fishing to be don,' said Bill Hoeper Monday when he spoke of his retirement plans.

Sometime ago he made the decision to retire from business the 1st of January, and with that date came the announcement that he had ssold his business interest in the Hoeper and Kraut Funeral Home to James Maurina, a former Owen (Clark Co., Wis.) resident and graduate of the local school system. For the past seveal years he has operated a business of his own at Dorchester, and will continue to do so. Hereafter the businesses will be known as Kraut and Maurina Funeral Services, Inc.

Bill Hoper first started his training when he was employed while in highs school at the Griebenow-Weirich Co., in September 1922 at a wage of 18 cents an hour. He first began assisting with funeral in 1923, and at that time there were no funeral homes in the area. The bodies were taken directly from the home to the church. In 1935 he became a licensed funeral director and embalmer, graduating from the Worsham School of Embalming in Chicago.

In November 1954 he and Donald Kraut, who also had been operating a funeral home in Dorchester, combined their interest and formed the Hoeper and Kraut Funeral Home in Owen.

Mr. Maurina has operated his business in Dorchester (Clark Co.) for the past eight years, and both he and Mr. Kraut are graduates of the Milwaukee School of Embalming.