Carolyn Hoegemeyer
May 4, 2011
Carolyn E. Hoegemeyer, formerly of Hooper, died Wednesday in Omaha from complications of pneumonia. She was 91. She was born Carolyn Elizabeth Brinkmeier on October 11, 1919, at the fruit and vegetable farm near Hannibal, Mo., that her great grandfather had purchased in 1848. She attended Mills Creek School, Hannibal High School, Hannibal LaGrange College and received her B.S. in Education with a major in English and a minor in French from the University of Missouri at Columbia. She returned to Hannibal and taught English and civics for two years. It was at the University of Missouri that she met Leonard C. Hoegemeyer, who was studying genetics and corn breeding. They were married on Sept. 24, 1943, in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he was stationed during World War II. After Leonard's discharge from the Army Air Corps, they moved to the farm near Hooper where Leonard was born and where, in 1937, he and his father H. Chris Hoegemeyer established Hoegemeyer Hybrids, one of the earliest seed corn companies.
Carolyn did the bookwork for the company, transferring her bookkeeping system to computer before she retired. She was former chairman of the board of the company and then chairman emeritus. She was a nurturing, loving mother to her own five children and to numbers of other children and teenagers who found solace in her home and always sufficient food at her table, no matter how many came for a meal. She was an accomplished pianist and a good tennis player and she could defeat her grandchildren at ping pong into their teenage years. Her grandchildren were great fans of her applesauce, made from her own apple trees, and of her homemade macaroni and cheese. Into her 80s, she tended more than 60 rose bushes and had a large garden and lawn at their retirement home on the farm. She was a talented quilter and created unique quilts for each of her 13 grandchildren. She and Leonard traveled to Europe several times and reconnected with the Brinkmeier and Hogermeier families in Germany. When she was 74, she went on a mission trip to Latvia to teach English.
She sang all her life, in church choirs in Hannibal and at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Scribner where she also taught Sunday School and was president of the Ladies' Aid and of the Lutheran Women's Missionary League (LWML). She was also a regional president of LWML. She continued singing at Lakeside Village in Omaha, where she moved in 2003, and at the Millard Good Samaritan Home, where she lived the past three years.
Carolyn was preceded in death by her parents Fred and Gertrude Brinkmeier, her husband Leonard Hoegemeyer, her brother Ernest Brinkmeier and her son-in-law Howard Witte. She is survived by her son Tom Hoegemeyer and his wife Linda, of Lincoln, and by her four daughters, Marilyn Hoegemeyer and her husband Pete Hohn, Buffalo, MN; Ann Jarrett and her husband Paul, Knoxville, TN; Sue Stenberg and her husband Don of Gretna, and Nancy Patton and her husband Jim of Elkhorn; and by 15 grandchildren, Stephan Becerra, Joshua Becerra, Sarah Jarrett Balog, Matthew Jarrett; Chris Hoegemeyer, Erik Hoegemeyer, Julie Stenberg LeFeber, Don Stenberg Jr., Joe Stenberg, Abby Stenberg, Carl Witte, Mark Witte, Bryan Witte, John Patton and David Patton and by 24 great grandchildren; by her sister-in-law Alice Hoegemeyer Rasmussen; a nephew Lee Hawks and four nieces, Kathy Hawks, Ruth McMaster, Janice Belohlavy and Nina Kavich; cousins Beverly Orth and Gregory Brinkmeier; Bill Couch and Joe Couch and Bob Freiling.
The funeral will be 10:30 A.M. Monday May 9 at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Scribner. The Rev. Bruce Schut will officiate. Burial will follow in the Scribner Cemetery. Visitation will be on Sunday from 3pm to 8pm with the family receiving friends from 3pm to 5pm at Ludvigsen's Scribner Funeral Chapel. Visitation will continue 1 hour before the service at the church. Memorials are suggested to St. Peter's Lutheran Church, American Macular Degeneration Foundation (P.O. Box 575 Northampton, MA 01061-0515) and the Good Samaritan Society.
Online guestbook at www.hooper-scribner.com
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