Wilke, Elmer Louis 1894 - 1948

WILKE, COOK, BERSE, STORBECK, MEENAN

Posted By: Reid R. Johnson (email)
Date: 6/25/2024 at 22:16:57

Clayton County Register, 01 Apr. 1948.

Military funeral services for Elmer Wilke were held from the residence Saturday afternoon, March 20th at one-thirty o'clock, to the Peace Evangelical and Reformed church at two p.m. The Rev. Paul Kitterer officiated. Burial was in the East Side cemetery. The Lemka Stendel Post No. 106 in charge of the military service.

Mr. Wilke began to fail in health about five months ago. On March 3rd he entered Finley hospital, Dubuque, where he remained until March 15, when he returned to his home near Elkader where he died March 17, 1948. Death was due to a heart condition. He had reached the age of fifty-three years, eleven months and twenty-seven days.

Elmer Louis Wilke was born in Garnavillo township, Clayton county on March 20, 1894, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Wilke. His entire life was spent in Clayton county. He was baptized in St. Paul's Lutheran church, Garnavillo, Iowa, and attended the rural school of the community. He served his country in the first World War being stationed at Aurora, Ill., and later at Indianapolis, Ind.

On October 01, 1919 he was united in marriage at Elkader, Iowa, to Carrie Cook. The couple went to housekeeping on the George Tujetsch farm. In 1921 they moved to a farm east of Elkader where they operated the Sunny Side Dairy for the past seventeen years and which has been their home for the past twenty-four years.

He is survived by his wife and two sons, Arno and Don and a mother-in-law, Mrs. Arno Wilke, also three brothers and three sisters, Arthur and Louie of Elkader, Walter of Farmersburg, Mrs. Cedonia Berse, Mrs. LaValva Storbeck and Miss Edna Wilke, all of Elkader.

His father and mother preceded him in death in 1923 and 1939 respectively and a sister, Mrs. Ella Meenan in 1945.

Pallbearers were: F. E. Sharp, F. A. Hickman, Joe Marcsisak, A. J. Meyer, Walter Szemkus and Ralph Bente.