The Frazee Press — Oct. 6, 1938
MRS. WOKASCH DIES IN SLEEP
Aged Lady Passed Peacefully Away Sometime Friday Night
Death came peacefully during Friday nite to Mrs. Francisca Wokasch of Frazee. Friday evening before going to bed, she set yeast sponge, preparatory to baking bread in the morning, and when she retired, about nine o’clock, appeared to be feeling entirely well. She had been to church during the day, taking her part in the forty Hours Devotion and so was spiritually prepared for her sudden departure from this life.
Tony, her son with whom she lived, says that his mother was sometimes troubled with her feet so that she could not get to sleep til around midnight. At such times she would sleep later than usual in the morning and so Saturday, when she did not get up first, he figured she had perhaps had a sleepless night and went ahead getting breakfast himself, letting her rest meanwhile. When the breakfast was ready and on the table, about seven, he called his other, however, and when she did not respond, went in to wake her. From all appearances she was slumbering peacefully, but it was in the sleep which knows no awakening in this world. Apparently she had passed away, without suffering or the slightest struggle, before midnight, for her body was already cold and stiff in death.
Little Grandma Wokasch, as she was generally known, had lived in this community for the past 38 years as it was in the fall of 1900 that she moved here with her husband, Adolph Wokasch, and family from Carver County. She had been married to Mr. Wokasch at New Ulm only a short time after coming to this country from her birthland of Bohemia. She was born at Pilson, then Austria, now Germany. This is in the disputed Sudetenland section which Germany has just taken possession of. For the first eleven years of their residence in Becker County they lived on what is now the Frank Ulschmid farm in Evergreen, moving to a house in town, across the river, in 1911. In 1930 they moved to their present home, up past the Catholic Church, which was always attended devotedly by Mrs. Wokasch.
Her husband passed away on Feb. 17th, 1935, but Mrs. Wokasch is survived by seven children, six sons and one daughter, They are Tony, with home she made her home, Ed of Evergreen, Adolph of Chicago, Ill., Wenzel of West Allis, Wis., Bill of Minneapolis, Ben of St. Paul and Anna (Mrs. George Konkler) of Oakes, N. D. She also has one living sister, Mrs. Carl Landsteiner of St. James, Minn.
Funeral services for Mrs. Wokasch were held Tuesday morning at the Sacred HEart Catholic Chuch; the Requiem Mass, with Father A. J. Junhans as celebrant, being at nine o’clock. Peter Kachel, Pete Schmitz, Anthony Deutsch, B. Gerber, John Boltz and Robert Byer acted as the pallbearers and interment was made in the Sacred Heart cemetery.
Among the out-of-town relatives here for the funeral were Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Wokasch and their little girl Leona, of Chicago, Wenzel of West Allis, Wis., Bill and Ben of the Twin Cities, and Mr. and Mrs. George Konkler of Oakes, N. Dak. All of the above with the exception of MR. and Mrs. Konkler, have already returned to their respective homes and the latter are leaving today.
To all the Wokasch children, and especially Tony, since he was his mother’s most constant companion, we extend sincere sympathy in their bereavement. But much as they will miss her, there is great comfort to them in the thought that she went so easily and was spared the drawn-out illness, suffering and pain that so often precedes death. Grandma Wokasch was just 80 years, seven months and 15 days of age when her final summons came and will never be forgotten by the family to whom she was a devoted, self-sacrificing mother and the many other relatives and friends who will always remember her with love and kindness.