Grace Kirking

Grace E. Kirking, age 90 of LaFarge, died Friday, July 13, 2012. Grace Kirking, age 90, of LaFarge, died early Friday morning, July 13, 2012 at the Bethel Home in Viroqua. Grace was born to Aloysius and Hildegarde (Wink) Thelen on December 12, 1921, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as one of ten children. The family moved to Buckeye Ridge near La Farge, WI, in November 1931. The family began a dairy farm that has been family-owned for 80 years and is now called the Wild Rose Dairy. Grace attended Buckeye grade school and then graduated from La Farge High School in 1940. She attended Vernon County Normal School and graduated with a two-year certificate in 1942. She taught country school for four years, first at Gallager and then at North Natwick. Then on November 15, 1945, she married Donald Kirking. They raised three children--Judith (John) Wainwright, David (Connie) and Daniel (Ellen). Donald and Grace first lived in Viroqua. In 1948 they moved to Buckeye Ridge and began a dairy farm near the Thelen family farm. They also raised and sold capons for a number of years. Then they both began working for the Wisconsin Tobacco Company. Donald died in 1973, but Grace continued to live on their farm tending her birds, garden and flowers. Grace did eventually return to teaching in 1967 working as a teacher's aide in the special education department at the La Farge Elementary School. In the summers she began working as a housekeeper at the Vernon Memorial Hospital. She became fulltime at the hospital staff after retiring from teaching again in 1985. She retired from the Vernon Memorial Hospital in October of 1995. In addition to her three children, she is also survived by 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren; three siblings: Inez Jaehnert, Paul Thelen, and Doris Callaway; nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her husband; six siblings Raymond, Jean, Marian Thelen, Lucille Walsh, Leonarda Zager, and Kenneth Thelen; and one granddaughter, Jennifer Kirking. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Monday, July 16, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Cashton. Fr. Michael Klos will celebrate the Mass. Burial will follow in the Sacred Heart Cemetery. Friends and relatives are invited to call on Sunday afternoon from 1 to 3 p.m. with a Scripture Wake Service at 2:30 p.m. at the Vosseteig-Larson Funeral Home, 123 W. Decker (Hwy 56) in Viroqua. Friends and family are also invited to call again at the funeral home on Monday from 10:00 a.m. until departing for church at 10:30 a.m. The Vosseteig-Larson Funeral Home of Viroqua is serving the family