Adele Erbstoeszer's Obituary
ERBSTOESZER, Adele
King, WI The former Adele Gordon was a wife, mother, actress, director, and published author. She was born on February 15, 1908 in Grand Rapids, MI, the daughter of Edward Gordon and the former Louise Jurack. She also lived for a time as a young girl in Schenectady, NY, before moving to Milwaukee, where her mother was born and raised. She attended Washington High School, where she met her future husband. After graduating, she attended an acting school, and then toured the Midwest for a time as a one-person theatrical company. She traveled with scripts, costumes, and props, and directed local theater groups in the performance of plays. In 1933, she married Vernon Erbstoeszer, shortly before he graduated from Marquette Law School. After years of being a homemaker and stay-at-home mother, her love of the theater reasserted itself. Using her maiden name, she appeared in plays at the Fred Miller Theater and other Milwaukee venues in the 1950’s and 60’s. For several years, she was the only local to be a regular cast member with the Port Players, a summer stock company in Oconomowoc. She also appeared in plays in the Chicago area, and did a tour of the east coast with a production. She worked with George Hamilton IV, Andy Devine, Pernell Roberts, and Jeanne Crain, among other notables. In the 1960’s and 70’s, she served as the director for the Schoolhouse Players, a Waukesha County children’s theater group. She wrote a number of children’s plays that were performed by this group, and several of them were later published by Samuel French. Over the years, she resided in Wauwatosa and Milwaukee, and in the Waukesha County communities of Oconomowoc Lake, Nashotah, Hartland, and Pewaukee. She spent her last eight years at the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King, WI, where she died peacefully February 19, 2008. Her husband of 70 years died at the Wisconsin Veterans Home in November of 2003. She is survived by her son David and daughter-in-law Karen of Pewaukee, grandchildren; Tiffany Gaumond, Kelly (Lawrence) Davis, Jessie (Glenn) Thomas, Laura Erbstoeszer, and David Erbstoeszer II, and great grandchildren; Abbie and Allie Thomas, and Cassidy Davis. A funeral service will be held at the Ainsworth Hall Chapel of the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King, WI on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 1:30 PM. Visitation will be from 12:30 – 1:30 PM on Friday. Interment will be in the Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in King, WI.
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