Bio: Kautz, Esther (100th Birthday - 2005)

Transcribed by: Crystal Wendt

Surnames: Kautz, Klammer, Schenzel, Mann

---Source: Merrill Foto News (Merrill, Lincoln, Co., Wis.) Wednesday, 12 Jan. 2005; page 7

---Kautz, Esther (100th Birthday - 1 Jan. 2005)

Esther Kautz of Merrill celebrated her 100th birthday on New Years Day at Pine Crest Nursing home in Merrill. She wants to thank all the people that helped her celebrate the landmark event with gifts, flowers, cards, and all of the well wishes; also, the Polish Cowboys.

Esther was born Jan. 1, 1905, in the parsonage of her father's parish near Goodwin, Okla. Her parents were Rev. Daniel and Elizabeth Klammer Kautz. She was the second of seven children that included three girls and four boys. Her older sister died of diphtheria at the age of 16.

Esther's father was a German Lutheran pastor. The family moved to Iowa, then to Canby, Minn., where Esther completed her eighth grade education and was confirmed. In 1920, her father retired from the ministry when English was also required. The family moved to the Merrill area, settling in the Town of Pine River where they became farmers. The family lived on the farm until 1995 when it was sold and she and her brother Edwin moved into Park Place in Merrill.

During 1926-1927, she began working, along with several friends from Merrill, at Concordia College in St. Paul, Minn., where she strayed through the 1928 school year. In the fall of 1929, she began employment at Concordia College in Milwaukee, where she stayed for 19 years, until 1947, she was a cook and then became the matron. She said she enjoyed working with the students, many of whom helped in the kitchen and dining room. Esther was very active in the Lutheran Church there and sang in the choir. In 1947 she returned to Merrill to take care of her ailing parents and help her brother Edwin on the farm.

Although she never married, Esther did help to raise two children. In 1950, Marilyn (now Schenzel) and Stephen Mann came to live with the Kautz family when their mother, Clara, Esther's younger sister, was recovering from tuberculosis.

Gardening was a favorite pastime for the family. Esther said that the Depression of the 1930s was not as hard on them as the people in the city, because of the garden and animals they raised. Flowers were always a big part of their yard. Esther was always known for her cooking and helped cook many dinners at church over the years. Apple bars were one of her specialties and she was often asked to bring them to occasions.

Esther has been a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Pine River for most of the years since 1920. At the church she belonged to Ladies Aid, did quilting for the Attic Workshop, taught Sunday school, was janitress and helped keep the cemetery mowed. She was also a member of the Pine River Homemaker's Club and Chorus, belonged to Lutherans for Life, was a docent at the Merrill Historical Society, worked at the Bethesda Thrift Store in Wausau, belonged to the Irma Senior citizens group, and also The Lutheran Women's Missionary League.

In July of 2003 she fell in the apartment at Park Place and decided it was time to go to Pine Crest Nursing Home. She likes it there. She is very fortunate in having spent only one night in a hospital, and that was when she fell and broke her thumb while moving grass at the church cemetery. She often mentions that she had lived a very blessed life.

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