Obit: Keller, Mabel (1898 - 1976)

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

Surnames: Keller, Palmer, Hagen, Gilkey

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 5/27/1976

Keller, Mabel (20 January 1898 – 22 May 1976)

Mrs. Mabel Keller, 78, of Whitehall, lost her battle with cancer, Saturday, May 22, at the Grand View Nursing Home, Blair.

She was born January 20, 1898, in Sjuggerud Coulee near Whitehall and in 1917 was married to Ernest Palmer, Neillsville. They lived on the four-generation Palmer family farm in Pine Valley and raised registered Holstein cattle. The Palmers were parents of three sons, Wendell (deceased), Gerald of Lebanon, Mo., and Wayne of Woodruff, and one daughter, Jessie, Denver, Co.

Ernest was killed deer hunting in 1929. Her 1932 marriage to William F. Keller, stone mason and musician, ended with his death in Whitehall in May 1972.

From 1937 to the mid-50’s, Mabel and Bill were pioneer proprietors of A&W operations at Tomah and in Sioux Falls, S.D. They retired to Whitehall in 1955.

For many years Mabel wrote the Pine Valley news column for “The Clark County News.” As a young clerk at the Farmers mercantile store, she liked to recall the surprise of her Winnebago customers when a blue-eyed blonde took orders in their language.

Additional close survivors are sisters, Mrs. Lila (Hilmer) Hagen and Mrs. Hazel (J. Bradley) Gilkey, Whitehall and Mrs. Margie (Wendell) Palmer, Milwaukee; six granddaughters and four grandsons.