Bogenrief, Louise F. 1915-2009

BOGENRIEF, LEOCADIA, PRIBORSKY

Posted By: Mary Holub, volunteer (email)
Date: 2/27/2009 at 15:25:56

From: Le Mars Daily Sentinel, February 27, 2009

Louise F. Bogenrief, 93, of Hinton died Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City.

Louise F. Bogenrief was born March 13, 1915, in Sioux City, the daughter of Ottokar Alexander and Louisa (Leocadia) Priborsky. She graduated from Sioux City Central in 1934.

While waiting for the streetcar, she was noticed by a handsome young man from Hinton, Frank Bogenrief. He asked a mutual friend to introduce them and then Frank started taking her to work. They were married 70 years ago, Jan. 14, 1939, at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Leeds, where the Rev. Kline officiated. The couple always had a garden and canning room which was always well stocked.

She worked for T.S. Martin Department Store and wrote verses for greeting cards.

From the earliest age, she excelled in tiny stitches with her embroidery. Embroidery, crocheting and tatting filled her quiet hours throughout her life time. She so loved catechism classes that she begged the Rev. Kline to let her continue even though 15 was the cut-off age. He told her he needed an organist and that if she could learn to play the organ in one month, she could be organist. She taught herself to play the piano and the St. Michael's organ, up in the hot old choir loft, in one month and was church organist for eight years.

Always social, she belonged to Catholic Women's Club, volunteered at St. Michael's Friday Nite Fish Dinners in Leeds, played "500" cards 'til her late 80s when her eyes wouldn't cooperate and she feared she was holding up the game.

The couple opened Frank's Folly Antique Shop in 1961 and she was at the shop every day weather and health permitted. She loved the shop and she loved their customers. Possessing honor, grace, kindness, working hard all the days of her life, that was Louise. Always wearing her ladylike screw-back earrings and offering you something freshly baked with freshly brewed coffee, keeping the home humming with pets, she set an example of quiet dignity.

Broken-hearted at her passing are her husband, Frank; children, Terry (Cliff), Margaret (Rich), Cece, Nick (Diane), Mark (Jeanne) and Tim (Madlyn); her grandchildren, Michael, Craig, Sara, Beth, Ben, Joel, Seth, Jesse, Amanda, Jeremiah, Eric, Matthew and Heather; great-grandchildren, Abigail, Stephen, Allison, Jayln Jean, Addisyn Jean, Serena, Jordan and Mary Catherine; and a sister, Natalie "Talie" Thorpe.

She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, an aunt, a great-aunt, cousin, a grandma, a great-grandma and a friend, but only six of us were lucky enough to call her mom.

One of the last of the greatest generation, she was preceded in death by her mother, Louisa; her father, Otto; and her sons, Francis and Stephen.

Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Sioux City, with the Rev. James Bruch officiating. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service Saturday at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel in Sioux City.