Beatrice Evangeline Breister

Beatrice Evangeline (Kottke) Breister, of Fond du Lac, died on Tuesday, June 9, 2015. She celebrated her 91st birthday on Memorial Day.These last two years challenged your body and mind, but you held on and never complained, giving your family precious time to experience your humor, your strength, your faith, your selfless nature and your love. We will miss you but we know you have finally gone home.Bea was born on May 25, 1924, to Ella (Bethke) and George Kottke in Naperville, Illinois. She married Harold Behm and they had two sons, Frederick and Joseph.On October 21, 1958, she married Kenneth Breister. They had two daughters, Cynthia (Breister) Luttenberger and Peggy Breister (Stensland). She also became step-mom to Ken’s two children, Cathy (Greg) Pond and Tom (Patti) Breister.Her early days were spent on the family farm on Hickory Road with her sister and four brothers across from what is now Hobbs Woods. She graduated from Fond du Lac Senior High School in 1942.She had great friends throughout her life. She was a great listener and people naturally gravitated to her, telling her their life stories. She worked as an operator at the phone company, in the days when operators were still needed to connect your call. She was Fond du Lac’s Dairy Queen and went on to place as first runner up in the state Alice in Dairyland competition.She worked in admitting at St. Agnes Hospital before leaving to join her husband, Ken, at Breister Appliance. She was the bookkeeper, but also the person who listened to everyone who walked through the door.She didn’t consider herself an activist or feminist, but she was a former member of the League of Women Voters and the Fond du Lac Taxpayers Alliance. She also worked on the American Legion Auxiliary. She was a strong woman, who had a clearly defined sense of right and wrong, tempered by compassion.She lived in Minnesota, Texas, and Oregon with her first husband. She moved back to Fond du Lac in the 1950s with two young boys in tow. A natural beauty with a gentle soul, she met Ken Breister and they were married. They settled in the home on Guindon Boulevard in the late 1950s, and she would reside there until 2013, when a second round of chemotherapy shattered her body. That spring, she went from living on her own to hospice and finally to a nursing home.Bea enjoyed concerts, gardening, reading, and time with family and friends. She made the best mashed potato coffee cake in the world, no contest.Bea is survived by her four children: Fred (Linda) Behm of Wheaton, Illinois, and their children: Leah (Norman) Lee (their children: Maribel Beatrice and Louis Apollo), Stacie (Scott) Piper, and Heidi Behm; Joseph (Sheila) Behm of Sun City Center, Florida, and children: Brett and Cassie; Cindy Luttenberger of Fond du Lac, and her children: Rachael (fiancé, Cory), Jennifer (special friend, Andrew), and Katie; Peggy (Greg Stensland) Breister of Fond du Lac, and their children: Annika and Michael.She is also survived by two step-children: Tom (Patti) Breister of Madison, and their son, Dustin; and Katharine (Greg) Pond of Madison, and their children: Jason and Nicole.She is further survived by one sister, Marcella Pfund of Georgia; sisters and brothers-in-law: Elsie Kottke, Barbara Breister, Sophie Breister, David and Ceil Breister, Bob and Angie Breister, and Laverne Brauer; countless nieces and nephews; her good friends, Gloria and Bev; and former neighbors.She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Ken, in 2005; four brothers: Roland, Gordon, Chester, and James; brothers and sisters-in-law: Robert Pfund, Theda Kottke, Jeanette Kottke, Virginia Kottke, William Breister, Clayton Breister, John “Jack” Breister, Genevieve Kelly; nieces and nephews; and friends.The funeral service will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 14, 2015, at Mach Funeral Chapel & Crematory, 31 East Division Street, Fond du Lac, with Rev. Michael J. Zuberbier officiating.The visitation will be on Sunday at Mach Funeral Chapel & Crematory from noon until the time of service.Private burial will take place on Monday in Estabrooks Cemetery.In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.The family would like to thank the staff at Grancare for their compassionate care of Bea.

Beatrice Evangeline Breister

May 25, 1924 - June 9, 2015