Sunday, January 19, 2025
Lillian Fern Hildebrand was welcomed into the precious embrace of her Lord and Savior on Monday, Jan.6, 2025.
Lillian was born Sept. 10, 1924, to Marian and William Hildebrand Sr. in the Town of Caledonia in Waupaca County. She was baptized and confirmed at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Fremont, where she remained a member all 100 years of her remarkable life.
Lillian's adventures began early while growing up in a series of area cheese factories renovated and operated by her father, from Quarterline Cheese Factory in Marion to Hickory Grove in Larsen.
A 1942 graduate of Neenah High School, she took courses at Oshkosh Business College in preparation for her first jobs in a local insurance office and then Twin City Building & Loan. Bookkeeping and clerical work were not a good fit, however, for the woman who always dreamed of becoming a teacher.
In 1945 she switched careers, taking a two-year rural course at the Oshkosh State Teachers College. She and her roommate lived at a boarding house where they paid $5 per week to sleep in a double bed. She happily accepted her first teaching job in 1947 at Iola Elementary School, where she also taught music, another dream of hers. The next year she taught in Weyauwega Elementary School, riding the school bus or the Brasch’s egg truck to work. After earning her degree in education in 1953, she taught at then Washington Elementary School in Appleton.
In 1955, lured by the mountains and a chance to ski, Lillian headed to Denver, CO. to teach, and soon had an opportunity to combine her budding interest in world travel with teaching. She signed up in 1957 to teach children of U.S. Air Force service members at the Japan-Nagoya Dependent School. Over the next three years she continued to spread her wings abroad, teaching second graders living on Air Force bases in Phalsbourg, France; Bitburg, Germany; and Aviano, Italy. She gained a unique perspective in each of these locations, witnessing how these countries rebuilt with goals for a peaceful future after the devastating impact of WWII.
She returned home to teach in Cedarburg and then moved back to Denver to resume teaching grades 1-4 until her retirement in 1988. During her 40-year career she traveled the world, often with her fellow educators. They crisscrossed Europe, South America and Middle East countries. Lillian was game for bus tours, cruises, and Elderhostel stays, and visited almost every U.S. state. She and her sister Elsie Mae took annual car trips around the country into their 90s.
Lillian spent most of her summers back home with her parents on the Wolf River in Fremont, where she could reconnect with her longtime friends, and family members, and become an important part of her many nieces and nephews lives, inspiring their love of travel through her slideshows, home movies, and stories. She would bring home all sorts of souvenirs, including costumes from different countries to dole out to her siblings' kids to use for book reports and show-and-tell at school. She connected them with pen pals.
Lillian had a special knack for staying in close touch with her siblings and their growing families, as only a favorite single aunt can do.
She made time to attend birthdays, graduations, school activities and sports events, baptisms, confirmations and the annual Walsh Family Cottage Week on the Chain O' Lakes near Waupaca. She took them to concerts, outdoor movies, and musicals, and carted lots of Hildebrand, Walsh and Yohr cousins around during their summer vacations so they could play with each other, learn to water ski on the Wolf, collect water bugs off their grandparents' dock, and swim at Partridge Lake.
Later, she hosted a number of her nieces and nephews for extended stays in Denver while they figured out their lives. She was delighted to see several others travel to Europe with backpacks, trek across the United States with campers, tents and RVs, cruise the Danube River, study abroad in college, and join the Peace Corps.
One example of her strong sense of family was the sabbatical she took in 1969-70 from the Denver school system after her sister Adeline died in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. Lillian took on one of the biggest challenges of her life, spending a year helping raise Adeline’s six children while her brother-in-law recovered from his injuries and the grieving family got back on its feet. She also tackled the job of keeping her older sister's dream alive of growing both the Montessori and Head Start education programs that Adeline had started — the first in Waukesha County.
Lillian kept her Colorado band of teacher friends as close as family. Over decades they enjoyed countless adventures together, pushed each other to grow, and always had each other's backs. She and her fellow feisty go-getters never squandered the prime of their lives, or missed an opportunity.
Lillian, who was always active, loved snow. "Most everyone knows snow makes me feel peaceful and happy to be alive," she would tell us, and backed that message up by skiing into her 80s, (free lift tickets). She was proud to point out that she had skied in almost every European country she had visited.
The Rocky Mountain range was her cathedral and inspiration for her daily prayers, whether she was skiing at Aspen or Snowmass, looking at the mountains out her condo window in Denver, or just driving through scenic valleys covered in wildflowers.
Lillian will be remembered by all who knew her well for her generous spirit, funny quirks, and sweet tooth, especially her long list of favorites from dark chocolate Angel food candy to lemon drops. She always remembered to take her “special vitamins”, (actually M&M’s). While we ate burgers, she would dip french fries into ice cream sundaes savoring each bite.
We won't forget her taking home movies at family picnics, weddings and parties, often making us laugh while in the act of swallowing food, or all the newspaper clippings she mail-ed us on everything from reasons to attend college to the latest trends in anti-wrinkle cream.
Lillian was also an ambassador for Wisconsin cheese, shipping chunks of sharp cheddar, swiss, colby and curds to dear friends and family for the holidays.
We are glad she never lost her joy of music. Even as dementia stole much of her memory in her late 90s, her face would light up, and she would clap her hands and tap her toes whenever music played. A former choir director, she could still remember every word of her favorite prayers, hymns and Christmas carols and often performed her own music in the middle of the night on her beloved organ. She loved Lawrence Welk and PBS shows featuring patriotic music.
A woman of deep faith, Lillian passed wise sayings to family members in her typically optimistic way. She often reminded us: "God has showered me with many blessings, a caring family and friends. If I go to sleep one night and don't wake up, don't mourn for me. I've had a wonderful life."
Lillian was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Adeline, brother-in-law Roger Walsh, brother Bill and former sister-in-law Elaine Hildebrand Kluge, brother-in-law George Yohr, niece Linda Hildebrand Gartzke, nephew Bill Hildebrand Jr., and great niece Lisa Hendershot.
She is survived by her sister Elsie Mae Yohr, of Waupaca, her brother Russel (Marty) of Eagle River, plus many nieces and nephews and their families.
A funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11, at St. Paul's, with visitation from 9 until the service begins.
Memorials may be directed to Adeline Montessori School, St. Paul's, or Lakeside Cemetery where Lillian will be laid to rest later.
Her family would like to warmly thank Lewin Funeral Home for its assistance, and the staff of Eagle Court Memory Care and Compassus hospice for their thoughtful and wonderful care.
