Thelma G. Vogt

Vogt, Thelma G.

Thelma Genevieve Vogt (nee Krempin), born August 21, 1927 in Lampman, Saskatchewan, Canada to the Reverend Arthur and Clara Krempin, died Monday, July 5, 2004 at Cherry Meadows hospice facility in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Thelma was the eldest of four children and spent her early years as the daughter of a Lutheran minister on the plains and prairies of Canada during the “dust bowl” years.

Her father developed cancer and died in 1939 after a two-year ordeal. The family moved to Winnipeg and at the age of fifteen, Thelma began to work at a local movie house in order to help support the family.

In 1944, she moved to Columbus, Ohio, to work in the Accounting Department of the Wartburg Press division of the American Lutheran Church. She returned to her family in Winnipeg in 1957 and from there brought her mother to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she took the position of Assistant to the Personnel Director at St. Luke’s Hospital.

In Milwaukee, she met and was courted by Roland H. Vogt, a widower whom she married in 1961. She, Roland and Roland’s son, James lived in Appleton, Wisconsin and she gave birth to another son, Jeffery, in 1963. In 1969, they adopted their daughter, Hilary.

Ever cognizant of her rich family heritage, she took on the job of family historian both for the Krempin and Vogt families, charting their lineages back into Germany and documenting many of the family stories.

Her interest in personal and Church history prompted her to organize and aid many historical efforts including the placement of Zion Lutheran Church of Appleton on the National Register of Historic Places, the incarnation of the Zion Historical Museum, and the restoration of many architectural and design features of Zion Lutheran Church.

Since 1994 Thelma and Roland spent their winters in Phoenix. In 2001 they moved from their longtime home on Morrison Street in Appleton to a new home on Appleton’s north side.

After Roland’s death in 2002, she continued to spend winters in Phoenix, often visiting both her and her late husband’s relatives, all to whom she was very close, in Sun City, Arizona.

She was preceded in death by her father, Arthur, her mother, Clara, and her husband, Roland. She died surrounded by her surviving siblings, Dr. George Krempin, Mrs. Roberta Roloff and Mrs. Janice Wahl and is survived by her children, sons James (Laurie) and Jeffery (Mary Anne), daughter Hilary (David) Langlie, three grandchildren, David, Daniel and Heidi, and two step-grandchildren, Jennifer and Michael Fusaro.

Funeral service for Thelma will be held at 4:00 pm, Friday, July 9, 2004, at FAITH LUTHERAN CHURCH, 601 East Glendale Avenue, with Reverend Daniel Thewes officiating. Burial will be in Appleton Highland Memorial Park. Friends may call at the church on Friday from 2:30 pm, until the time of the service. Memorials may be directed to the Arthur Krempin School of Music, in care of the funeral home.

WICHMANN FUNERAL HOME
Tri County Chapel
3212 South Oneida Street
Menasha 920-831-9905