Henrietta Elizabeth Leichsenring, 26 Oct 1917 – 03 Jul 2012

LEICHSENRING, HOPPE, HERGERT, WEBB, HOMRIGHOUSE, MARZ, EHRMAN

Posted By: Sandy Ficken (email)
Date: 7/19/2012 at 21:32:48

Funeral services for Henrietta “Hattie” Leichsenring, 94, Middle Amana, were held at 10 a.m. Friday, July 6, at the Middle Amana Community Church. She died peacefully Tuesday, July 3, 2012, after a life so full and enriched it would tire those half her age.

Church elder Jon Childers officiated at the service.

Burial was in the Middle Amana Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to the Amana Church Society.

Kloster Funeral Home, Marengo, was in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be left at www.klosterfuneralhome.com.

Henrietta Elizabeth Leichsenring was born Oct. 26, 1917, in Middle Amana, the middle child of Robert and Johanna Hoppe Hergert. She worked in the communal kitchen in Middle for a year before the Great Change of 1932. She was in the first graduating class of Amana High School, having to wait three years beyond the age she would have normally finished because the high school was being built. This ws truly a wonderful time for her. As a young adult she would frequently road trip with friends any time the New York Yankees came within driving distance of Amana. They went to watch classmate Bill Zuber play ball.

She moved to Los Angeles, Calif., in 1934. She was one of Rosie’s riveters during World War II, working on war planes, not knowing at the time just how unique that experience would be. In later years, she contributed to the Rosie the Riveter Museum project in Richmond, Calif.

She married Ernest Leichsenring July 2, 1949, in Los Angeles, and the couple returned to Middle Amana, where they would live the rest of their lives. They were overjoyed when son Richard was born in 1951. She was employed at the Amana Woolen Mill for 30 years, the last five years as manager. She retired in 1982.

Hattie was always ready to travel, whether a bus trip to California by herself or a two-week trip to Europe with her son and daughter-in-law. She loved football, especially the Iowa Hawkeyes, who she saw play in Kinnick Stadium several times. She also loved the Chicago Cubs and hoped she’d live long enough to see them win, or even compete, in the World Series.

She was active in the community and kept her mind and body as sharp as she could. She rode her exercise bike daily until recently. She finally decided it was time to give up driving at the age of 91. She was thoughtful and kind, always up for a visit and lively conversation. She was a great storyteller, especially when it came to her past and what life in Amana was like when she was young.

Leichsenring is survived by her loving son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Pamela Leichsenring, Middle Amana; two grandsons she adored, Jesse and Jessica Leichsenring, Wisconsin Dells, Wis., and Matthew Leichsenring, Colorado Springs, Colo., and three great-grandchildren who delighted her in her last decade, Nate, Casey and Annie Leichsenring, all of Wisconsin Dells; also, two nieces Sue Webb, Livermore, Calif., and Carol and Rick Homrighouse, Petaluma, Calif., and two stepdaughters, Ella Mae and Fritz Marz, Homestead, and Katie and Harry Ehrman, Middle, and their families.

She was preceded in death by her husband, in 1988; her parents; one brother, Rudolph, and one sister, Betty.

The Williamsburg Journal Tribune, 12 Jul 2012, pg 11
Published July 5, 2012 in The Gazette