Beatrice Evangeline (Kottke) 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 Normal, 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.

 

Mach Funeral Chapel & Crematory is serving the family, www.machfuneralchapel.com.