Memorials › Edith Adelgunde Giesbrecht Klempel

Edith Adelgunde Giesbrecht Klempel

2 Apr 1903 – 12 Apr 2008

Birth	2 Apr 1903
Death	12 Apr 2008
Cemetery	Ukiah Cemetery Ukiah , Mendocino County , California , USA
Added by	Ron on 03 Jun 2021
FaG	https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29001431

Bio

Edith Klempel was born into a German-speaking family in Paso Robles on April 2, 1903, the youngest of 14. The family moved to Aberdeen, Idaho, a farming community in the southeastern corner, where there were quite a few other German Mennonite families. She did not learn English until she began elementary school where her oldest sister was the teacher. She attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, class of 1926, and then took nurse's training at the Deaconess Hospital in Newton, Kansas, class of 1929. The miracle drug at that time was aspirin. She worked for the town doctor for several years in Aberdeen, Idaho, where part of the job was cleaning the office, doing the books, and accompanying him out to the various farms for home deliveries of babies. She delivered the anesthesia-ether on gauze-a very inexact method, but everyone lived. She and her husband Gus were married the week after Christmas, because no babies were due in Aberdeen at that time. She was 33 at the time, and one niece reportedly could not imagine why anyone that old would bother to get married. After their children were born, Edith stayed at home to raise children. She forced her daughters to practice the piano, for which they are grateful. She lent support to her husband in his jobs as farmer (though she steadfastly refused to milk cows), then as a welder in Salem, Oregon, and later as a truck driver in Humboldt County and eventually as driver education teacher at South Fork High School. They were always very active in church: the Mennonite church in Aberdeen, First Baptist in Salem, Hydesville Community Church, and Miranda Community Church (now a private residence across from South Fork High School with a big dish on the top). Edith usually taught Sunday School, Gus directed the choir, and occasionally they sang duets. They lost their house in Myers Flat when the Eel River flooded in 1955, and watched as it floated down the river one morning with everything they owned in it, except the lumber truck and car which they had saved. First thing, they joined a book club and record club, but they learned they could live quite well without a lot of things-they learned to "travel light." It was quite a project to reconstruct their business records, which fell mostly to Edith, as her husband was able to haul lumber again very soon after the flood. She worked briefly in the school cafeteria in Miranda while Gus taught driving. When they were in their 60s, they moved back to Salem where Gus had been asked to teach welding and driver training at the Oregon State School for the Deaf which he did for 4-5 years. They returned to First Baptist Church where they had many friends and enjoyed the senior activities there. Edith vacuumed the large foyer of the church for several years until she just couldn't work that hard and was then promoted to sharpening all the pencils and replacing them and other materials in the pews of the sanctuary each week. Edith was also quite involved in preparing Meals on Wheels in Salem and entertaining friends and relatives. Eventually their Salem siblings all died or moved away, so they moved down in Ukiah where their daughter, Ruth Hensell, lived. Ruth looked in on them at Creekside almost every day for the next dozen years until Gus died. They attended the Evangelical Free Church where Edith enjoyed her Bible study group until her hearing got so bad that she stopped attending, though she continued to pray for a long list of people on her own at home. The Klempels celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at E. Free in 1986 with many friends and family. Edith had made up her mind to take care of Gus as long as he lived, and kept him at home until the last 3 days of his life. She herself lived independently at Creekside until mid January, a few months before her 100th birthday, when she had a slight stroke. She is now in good hands at Ukiah Convalescent Hospital on Dora Street. In later years she spent quite a bit of time writing letters and notes of encouragement, not only to many friends and relatives, but also to any number of people who were on her prayer list. She was easily identified on her walks around Ukiah by her yellow baseball cap. She was married to Gus for 58 years. She is the last of her siblings, some of whom lived into their 90s. Her two daughters, Judy Ballenger and husband Larry and Ruth Hensell and husband Ron, live in Ukiah, and she has a son Dennis Klempel, who lives on a boat in San Diego with his wife Karen. She has 5 grandchildren (including Lisa and Becky Hensell of Seattle) and 5 great-grandchildren, and numberless nieces and nephews (there were 13 siblings, remember, 8 of whom lived past childhood).

Inscription

Wife of Gustav C. Klemple

Photos

Family

Parents

Spouse

Gustav Carl Klempel 1904–1995 FaG

Siblings

Children

Dennis Carl Klempel 1945–2010 FaG

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