Eileen G. Hengesteg

Eileen G. Hengesteg, 99, Lake Mills, passed away Sunday, Aug. 27, at the Lake Mills Care Center.Funeral service will be held 2 p.m., today (Wednesday), Aug. 30, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Lake Mills, with Father James Dubert officiating. Burial will be held in St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery, rural Lake Mills. Mittelstadt Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. The family suggests memorials be made to Hospice of North Iowa or St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery.
Eileen Gertrude Hengesteg was born Jan. 8, 1918 in rural Freeborn County, Minn., the daughter of Frank and Gertrude (Carey) Lair. She graduated from Emmons High School in 1936.
She was united in marriage to Ernie G. Hengesteg on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1938.
Eileen was a homemaker to the truest sense of the word. She loved her family, worked alongside her husband, raised ten children, baked a lot of bread, was a seamstress, and loved her church. She was the rock of the family through all life threw at them.
She is survived by her children, Donald (Judy) Hengesteg, Lake Mills; Robert (Marg) Hengesteg, Northwood; Kay Kirschbaum and Mary Jo (Phillip) Wogen, both of Lake Mills; Steve (Carol) Hengesteg, Judie Adams, and Charles (Bonnie) Hengesteg, all of Northwood; Jean (Curtiss) Pint, Dickeyville, Wis.; 27 grandchildren; 63 great-grandchildren; 10 great-great-grandchildren; brother, James Lair, Albert Lea, Minn.; sister-in-law, Hazel Hengesteg, Rochester, Minn.; special friend, Kandy Schupe; along with many nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her husband in 1981; two sons: Richard and Bruce; grandson. Rick Hengesteg; great-grandson, Scott Midlang; brothers: Francis and Webster; sisters: Betty Martinson, Margie McKay and Maxine Lair; and son-in-law Frank Adams.