Online Obituaries
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2002
2002 obituaries    2001 obituaries
2000 obituaries    1999 obituaries
The Journal Online   Experience New Ulm
Click here for today's obituaries

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in St. Cloud for Lawrence (Larry) J. Stangler, age 78, who died Thursday at the St. Cloud Hospital. Burial will be in the St. Stephen Catholic Cemetery in St. Stephen, Minn. Friends may call from 4 - 9 p.m. Sunday at the Miller-Carlin Funeral Home in St. Cloud and after 9:30 a.m. Monday at the church in St. Cloud. Melrose VFW Post 7050 will pray at 6:30 p.m. followed by St. Anthony's Parish Prayers at 7:00 p.m. Sunday evening at the funeral home in St. Cloud.
   Lawrence was born July 28, 1923, in Albany, to Anton and Katherine (Dueval) Stangler. He graduated from Albany High School and served in the U. S. Army during WW II. He lived in the Albany area for most of his life, until he moved to St. Cl oud in 1976. He worked as a painter for Frigidaire Company for over 35 years, retiring in 1986. He married Lucille Husfeldt-Rueckert on August 16, 1991, in Flandrau, S.D. He was a member of St. Anthony's Catholic Church in St. Cloud and the Melrose VFW post 7050.
   Lawrence is survived by his wife, Lucille, St. Cloud; step-children, Judith (Edwin) Isackson, New Ulm; Patricia (Kai) Hartkopf, Byron, Tamara (David) Olson, Kasson; Scott Rueckert, St. Cloud; Terry (Sherry) Rueckert, St. Cloud; and Steve (Tami) Rueckert, Elk River. He is also survived by his brothers and sister, Robert Stangler, St. Joseph; Ervin Stangler, Albany; Anthony Stangler, Albany and Marcella Hallermann, St. Cloud and their spouses; 7 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren
   He is preceded in death by his first wife, Bernadine; parents, Anton and Katherine Stangler; daughter Joletta Stangler and granddaughter, Jacqueline Olson.

Irene Leocadie Ochs Tausche was born on Dec. 26, 1906, into a pioneer Minnesota family. Her grandfather, Joseph Anton Ochs Sr. migrated to New Ulm in the 1850s and fought to defend that town from the Indians in the 1862 uprising. In her very young years, Irene listened with eagerness to tails of narrow escapes from massacres from her aunt Setzel and others, in German of course.
   Irene's father, Joseph Anton Ochs Jr. was one of twelve children. He and several of the Ochs brothers started junior department stores in New Ulm and Faribault and briefly, in Austin and Rochester. Another brother, A.C. Ochs founded the brickworks in Springfield, Minn., which exists to this day.
   J.A. Ochs Jr. married Emma Thilmmaine of Faribault, and of that marriage five children were born: Ferdinand, Anton, Ellen, Irene and Imelda. Irene attended public and parochial schools in New Ulm and then attended the College of Saint Catherine in St. Paul, from which she graduated in 1928.
   Upon graduation and after a grand tour of Europe (for $400), she embarked on a teaching career. The first two years she taught high school English and German in St. Peter Minn., and thereafter one year In Crookston. Her duties, in additional to teaching, included coaching girls basketball and drama. Her Crookston contract (for $1000 per annum) provided that she could not smoke under any circumstances, must not leave town on weekends, and should patronize local merchants.
   In 1931, Irene obtained a position in the coveted Austin Public School System, teaching English at Austin High School. In those days she lived in a local boarding house (the Church's) where she and other young teachers shared rooms and double beds. Her career was cut short, however when she was swept off her feet by a handsome young man, Vincent Tausche, who had come to Austin a few years earlier to join his uncle, Charles F. Fox in the business which bore his uncle's name. (In those recession years, married women were not allowed to teach, as they would be taking a job away from a head of family breadwinner.)
   On September 3, 1934, they were married and in 1936 moved into their newly constructed house at 1102 Eighth Avenue N.W. (in those days Freeborn Avenue) in which Irene lived until her death on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002, in Austin.
   Irene continued to teach as a substitute ($6 per diem), and became active in the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters, as well as, in later years, the woman's auxiliary of the Sacred Heart Home. In the 1960s she served as a member and then as Chairwoman on the Austin City Planning Commission.
   Irene remained proud of her teaching career and especially of her hometown of New Ulm, which has maintained its German heritage and turn of the century charm all these many years.
   Irene is survived by her younger sister, Imelda, who lives in California, and her son Charles, an attorney in Chicago, as well as numerous nephews, nieces and cousins.
   A memorial mass will he celebrated 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2002, at St, Edward's Catholic Church with Father Donald Zenk officiating. The family will greet friends 1/2 hour before the service and also at a reception following the service at the church, Interment will he In Calvary Cemetery
   Mayer Funeral Home of Austin, is in charge of arrangements, (507)433-1817. In lieu of flowers:
   Memorials are preferred to the Illinois Unit/Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, 18 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60603.