June Anne (Wolf) Brunner

June Anne (Wolf) Brunner, passed in her sleep surrounded by the voices and music of her family that she loved, on her journey to heaven. This wonderful woman created a legacy of eleven children and twenty grandchildren. Mom was world renowned for her award winning cooking and baking skills. Anyone visiting her home was immediately given a hug and made to feel right at home, usually starting with an offering of something freshly baked.

Mom also had a special talent for cake decorating and taught her skills to family, friends, and countless students in her baking classes. She is remembered also for her sewing and quilting. Of all of her abilities, Mom is most fondly remembered for the examples she has taught through the way she lived her life. Mom never ran out of time, balancing all of the chores of running her home and household from dawn to dusk, and yet she still had time to attend every sporting or music event for any of her kids or grandchildren. If there was nothing to go see, she would listen to the Brewers, Packers, or Badgers on the radio or TV, sometimes with some cookies and lemonade. Mom and Dad found time in their busy lives to do a lot of travel, both in the Americas and overseas. Mom kept a daily journal for years, read, and prayed for an hour each evening, as well. She was usually sewing or quilting, while simultaneously baking cookies, a wedding cake, or bread. Mom was constantly giving, and rarely asking for anything in return. She taught us that it is not the material goods that counted, but the giving of ourselves that was important.

Mom is survived by her husband of nearly 55 years, John, and children, Mary Brown, Rose (Mike) Nett, Betsy (Mike) Kittoe, Greg (Shari), Julie (James) Caldwell, Bernadette, Gretta, Michael (Camille), Christy (Jeff) Pier, Robert, Virginia (Craig) Sacia. In addition to her biological children, there were countless friends and strangers who came to adopt her as a surrogate mother, foremost among them Diane Roelke. Grandchildren include Mike Brown; Liz, Michael (Jamie), and Tim Carney; Jordane (Sam) Ross, Sydney, and Brooks Kittoe; Adame and Tavia Brunner; Jacquelyn, Jonathan, and Jenna Caldwell; Emory and Erich Thiemann; Kaitlyn and Ryan Brunner; Isabelle and Jaxon Pier; Delaney and Rex Sacia.

The family would like to thank the staff at St. Marys MICU, especially Dr. Jaymes Couser and Michelle Whitfield, RN, and the staff at the Don and Marilyn Anderson Hospice Care Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin, for their gentle nature and attentiveness. In lieu of flowers, the family would request donations be made to the Alzheimers Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, IL 60601-7633, or to The Retirement Fund of The School Sisters of St. Francis, 1501 South Layton Blvd., Milwaukee, WI 53215, or the Sts. Andrew-Thomas Endowment Fund, 101 Church St., Potosi, WI 53820.

Visitation was from 10:00 a.m.to 12:00 a.m. at St. Andrew Church, Monday April 21, 2008. We then celebrated Junes life at Mass, at 12:00, Noon. A private burial will be held at a later date.