Obit: Grabowski, Maria "Mary" Agnes (1913 - 2004)

Contact:  Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon

Surnames: Grabowski, Budzinski, Lato, Rita, Rogalski, Webster, Langeberg, Gray, Long, Purkapile, Zajack, Kopacz

----Sources: Thorp Courier (Thorp, Clark County, WI.) December 15, 2004

Grabowski, Maria "Mary" Agnes (September 30, 1913 - December 13, 2004)

Maria (Mary) Agnes Grabowski, age 91, resident of Gilman, WI, passed away peacefully at her home on December 13, 2004. Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, December 17, 2004, at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Gilman, WI, with Fr. John Long officiating. Burial will follow in the Meadowbrook Cemetery, Gilman, WI. Friends and family may call from 4 - 8 p.m. on Thursday evening, December 16, at the Gilman Funeral Home with a 7:30 p.m. Rosary being recited.

Conceived in Poland, Maria crossed the Pacific Ocean with her parents, Felix and Josephine (Budzinski) Lato and her older sister Stella. She was born in Virginia, MN, on September 30, 1913, grew up on a homestead south of Thorp and graduated from the eighth grade at Goff State Grade School. She married a neighbor, John Grabowski, on July 3, 1930, and they lived and farmed in the Gilman area for forty years.

After retirement from the farm, Mary, the 57, returned to school to become a licensed CNA. She worked at the Gilman Nursing Home for several years before serving others as a Hope Hospice Volunteer. Hope Hospice and Palliative Care then returned the favor and helped her in her last days.

Maria was a member of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church and the St. Anne’s Rosary Society. Mary’s goal in life was to help others and spread love and peace to all. She freely shared her time, her knowledge, and her gifts. She loved to garden, both vegetables and flowers, to sew (quilts for all her loved ones), to cook and bake, to play cards and entertain, and to send hundreds of cards and letters to friends and family.

She is survived by her children: Theresa (Bob) Rita of Elgin, IL; Josephine (John) Rogalski of Crystal Falls, MN; Marie Webster of Gilman, WI; Agnes (Charles) Langeberg of Wisconsin Rapids, WI; Victoria (Victor) Gray of Greenwood, WI; John (Laurette) Grabowski of Auburn, WA; and Anthony (Jan) Grabowski of Oak Creek, WI. Surviving family also includes 38 grandchildren, 65 great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews; three sisters: Rose Long of Stanley, WI; Nellie Purkapile of Marshfield, WI; and Ann Zajack of Thorp, WI; and one brother, Joe (Agnes) Lato of Thorp, WI.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents; her husband John in 1992; one daughter, Frances (Henry) Kopacz; three brothers: Stanley, Paul, and Vincent Lato; and one sister, Stella.

Mary will be dearly remembered and sadly missed by all who knew her.

Plombon Funeral Service is in charge of arrangements.