Wilma Bertling-Miller

BERTLING, MILLER, AMENT, HUMMEL

Posted By: cheryl moonen (email)
Date: 12/4/2014 at 20:39:42

Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) - Wednesday, March 5, 2003

DYERSVILLE, Iowa - Wilma Bertling-Miller, 90, of Anamosa, formerly of Dyersville, died Monday, March 3, 2003, at Shady Rest Care Center, Cascade, after a brief illness.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Francis Xavier Basilica, Dyersville. Burial will be in St. Paul Cemetery, Worthington. Friends may call from 4 to 9 p.m. today at Kramer Funeral Home, Dyersville, where there will be a parish scripture service at 5 p.m.

She was born on Feb. 12, 1913, in Dyersville, daughter of Andrew and Mathilda (Ament) Hummel.

She was baptized Philomina Barbara at St. Francis Xavier Basilica. She was educated in the Xavier schools.

She worked at the "shirt factory" before her marriage to Leo Bertling on Jan. 12, 1931. Their love produced eight children, four sons and four daughters. She was a dedicated wife and mother.

Leo and Wilma farmed. Over the years, farming led them to the areas of Sandsprings, Monticello and Anamosa. They enjoyed working together, dancing and playing cards with neighbors.

She was a master at cooking and baking, not to mention a meticulous housekeeper. The grandchildren looked forward to her "homemade egg noodles and snow pie" at family gatherings.

After Leo's sudden death on Oct. 13, 1972, Wilma farmed alone for another year on their 170-acre farm near Anamosa. She took great pride in their prize winning registered Holstein dairy herd they had bred and raised over the years. She moved to the town of Anamosa in 1974, and worked briefly at the Langworthy Locker.

She later married Fred Miller on Oct. 18, 1975. They loved dining out, dancing and playing cards with their friends. Results from the "guys" against the "girls" card games were always a HOT topic in days that followed!

They traveled to the Northwestern United States and Las Vegas. She enjoyed entertaining family and friends and playing bingo. Sadly, Fred died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Aug. 18, 1989. She lived in Anamosa until August 1998.

Surviving are two daughters, Mary Lee (Vernon) Demmer, of Dubuque, and Carol (Richard) Ostwinkle, of Farley; a sister, Ruth Lawlor, of Chicago; 29 grandchildren; numerous great-grandchildren; a great-great- granddaughter; several stepchildren; two daughters-in-law, Christina and Anita Bertling; and a sister-in-law, Angela Callahan, of Galena, Ill.

Over the years, Wilma has grieved the loss of six children, Donald, Richard, Tom and David Bertling, Joyce Ney, and Theresa Bertling in infancy; four siblings, Edward, Andrew and Gilbert Hummel and Rosemary Beutel; and a grandchild, Eugene Bertling.