Memorial services for 80-year-old Elaine Mausling of Mountain Lake, Minnesota, will be held Monday morning, February 3, 2014, at 10:30 a.m., at St. St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in St. James, Minnesota, located at 315 9th Street South. The officiating clergy will be Pastor Matthew Natsis. Interment will be in the St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Butterfield, Minnesota cemetery, located adjacent to the Butterfield City Cemetery on the south side of Watonwan County Road #5 and southeast of Minnesota State Highway #60.
Visitation will be Sunday, February 2, 2014, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the chapel of the Sturm Funeral Home of Mountain Lake, located at 420 10th Street North, as well as at the church on Monday, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Elaine Mausling passed away on her 80th birthday on Wednesday, January 29, 2014 at the Good Samaritan Society – “The Village” – in Mountain Lake, Minnesota.
Elaine Marilyn Mausling was born on the family farm in rural Jeffers on January 29, 1934, the daughter of Rhinehart and Clara (Siemzgluss) Schuknecht. Because her mother died when Elaine was six-years-old, she went to live with her maternal grandparents. When her father re-married Esther Plueger, Elaine was reunited with the family and they moved to rural Odin, Minnesota. She graduated from St. James Public High School, a member of the Class of 1951.
On February 16, 1952, she married Victor “Vic” Mausling at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Butterfield. She helped Vic run his parents’ farm in Watonwan County until they moved to Germany due to Vic’s United States Army obligations. They lived there for three years. After returning to the area, Elaine worked for eight years for Southwest Community Action Council with Head Start and the rural meal delivery program. For over 20 years she worked in the Mountain Lake Public School kitchen, after which she retired. She was an active member of the Butterfield VFW Auxiliary and St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, where she taught Sunday school and Vacation Bible school. Elaine enjoyed playing cards with neighbors, crocheting, gardening and dancing.
She is survived by three daughters: Sheryl (James) Rupprecht of Holmen, Wisconsin, Sue (Mike “Bergy”) Bergerson of Mountain Lake, Minnesota and Brenda (Steve) Pierson of Woodstock, Minnesota; sisters: Delores (Charles) Taylor of Auburn, Washington, Betty (Allen) Edwards of Sedro Woolley, Washington and Janet (Rev. Steve) Biegel of Geneva, Illinois, six grandchildren: Kyle (Mandy) Rupprecht, Liesl (Nathan) Jordan, Nikki Kraus, Micah Rupprecht, Travis Pierson, and Nathan Pierson and nine great-grandchildren.
Preceding her in death were her mother, stepmother, father and husband.
