Carol Jean Kaus, 74, of Tomah passed away Wednesday, April 1, 2015, at the Serenity House in Tomah.
She was born July 21, 1940, to Louis and Dorothy (Steinbrink) Kaus at the Sparta hospital in Monroe County, Wis. She was a faithful and devoted member of St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tomah.
Carol attended the Hart Valley grade school in the town of Wellington. In 1958, she graduated from the Kendall High School. She attended the Juneau County Teacher’s College in New Lisbon. She then taught grades one through eight at Sutcliffe Corner’s grade school before getting her Bachelor of Education at Wisconsin State College-La Crosse (now the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse) in 1963. She taught in public and private schools for almost eight years.
Her second career was in floral arrangement. She worked in several floral shops in the La Crosse area and at Flowers by Guenther in Onalaska. She retired in 2005 as the head floral designer at Michael’s Arts and Crafts in Valley View Mall, La Crosse.
Carol had many hobbies. She loved any crafts, including crochet, knitting, sewing, working with pressed flowers, painting with oil and acrylics, and researching her ancestry. She loved walking the woods on the Kaus Family Farm, where she grew up. The motion picture “The Sound of Music” was her favorite movie.
Carol is survived by two brothers, Donald (Jeanette) Kaus of Tomah and David (Anita) Kaus of Coleman, Wis., and many nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Louis and Dorothy Kaus, and her sister, Marion Finnigan.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 4, at St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on South Ridge. Pastor Curt Backhaus will officiate. Burial will be in South Ridge Lutheran Cemetery in the town of Wellington. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the Sonnenburg Family Funeral Home, 801 E. Monowau Street, Tomah, on Friday from 4–7 p.m. and at the church on Saturday from 10 a.m. until time of the service.
Online condolences may be sent to www.sonnenburgfamilyfh.com.
