RIP Edward Anton (Happy) Mauritz

Edward A. “Happy” Mauritz, age 93 of Tigerton, passed away on Sunday, March 25, 2012.  He was born in Splitrock on August 4, 1918, son of the late Ferdinand and Sylvia (Jones) Mauritz.  At the age of 16, he joined the C.C.C. Camp and from there he joined the Army and fought in WWII, serving in Australia, Trobian Islands and New Guinea.  On June 12, 1948, Edward was united in marriage to Rose Marie Krolow in Marion.  Edward work for Allen Bradley for 30 years.  He enjoyed traveling, fishing and gardening.  Edward is survived by his wife of 63 years; Rose Marie, Tigerton, four daughters; Donna (Gary) Hollingsworth, Burnsville, NC, Vonnie (John) Zychowicz, Tigerton, Sylvia (Richard) Downs, Henderson, KY and Veronica (James) Etter, Horicon, two sons; Carl and Randall, both of Wittenberg.  He is further survived by eight grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, five great-great-grandchildren with one on the way and numerous nieces and nephews. Three brothers Richard & Erma Mauritz, Howard & Deloris Mauritz and Harold Mauritz.  Edward was preceded in death by three brothers; Leonard, Ray and George, a sister; Marie Lenhardt. 

The funeral service for Edward will be held at 11:00 on Thursday, March 29, 2012 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, Gresham.  Visitation will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 on Wednesday at Beil-Didier Funeral Home, Tigerton.  Visitation will continue from 9:30 until the hour of service at the church on Thursday. 

The family would like to thank the Homme Home and AseraCare Hospice for the care they provided their father.  They would especially like to thank Peggy and Brenda.

Hi everyone here is dads eulogy, these are some of the happier times we all had with dad.

Edward Mauritz was a married man, with a large family.  Here are some of the memories of the family shared together as they grew up.  He was a caring and loving husband and father.  Edward was a hardworking man, but enjoyed life to the fullest.  The family learned a lot from this much loved man.

This is the life and memories Edward Mauritz.

One time when dad was a young boy he remembered a time when Uncle Lenard came home with a badger on his back and another time they where on the roof of the Chevy garage in Tigerton and watched a tornado go through south of town and take down a barn.

Edward recorded a Country-Western song, but in the middle of the recording of the recording he stopped threw his hand up and yelled Hi to someone he knew.

Ed and Rosemarie were on their way to get married with his brother (Ray) and sister-in-law (Laura).  Ed saw hammer lying in the middle of the road and stopped to pick it up.  Ed and Rosemarie were married by a Justice-of-the-Peace.  After the wedding, Rosemarie asked for her ring as they walked out.  That evening the town of Tigerton held a shivery and Ed paid the last $5.00 they had.

Edward and Rosemarie picked cherries; afterwards they would go for a ride with a load of people and would always end up in a field.

When dad was in the Army during WWII during basic one time the sergeant pushed dad down while doing toe touches and dad came up and hit the sergeant in the chine, the sergeant wanted courtmarshled but the Cornel said no for what he did was not right and the next day the sergeant was gone the next day. One time they had to do a hike with loaded back packs and during the hike dad sat down on the side of the road to wait for ambulance to come and the sergeant told dad to get moving and dad said no I'm waiting for the ambulance. When they got back to camp and dad was taken to the hospital and the Dr. said dad had a big bruise on his shoulder and he had to stay in the fumitory for a week. When the sergeant came back and in to see what was wrong with dad the Dr. said dad is going to stay in there. The sergeant asked what is wrong and the Dr said never mind he didn't need to know.

One time dad remembers a time when 17 B17's came in out of gas and all most all of them crashed and killed all on board the planes. Another time dad refused to work because he was doing work of a master sergeant and was not getting paid for it so he refused to work for around 6 weeks during that time the Cornel asked him a few times are you ready to come back to work and dad pointed to his sleeve and said I don't see any thing on here yet. The cornel said dam you are stubborn ed. On week six the cornel said I can't give you the strips right away but why don't you come work for me and I promos I'll do what I can to get them strips for you. So dad said OK. During that time dad would take the cornel out and get fresh fruit. The cornel ask dad how he knew where all the fruit was and dad said what do think I was doing when I didn't work. LOL  One time on New Guiney some nuts where falling on the tents and the guys didn't know what they where and dad said he knew. He told them they brazil nuts and broke the shell open and showed them all the smaller nuts in side the out shell.

Donna, Vonnie, and Sylvia remember a time when they were fishing with Ed; a farm wagon went by loaded with hot peppers.  A few of the peppers dropped from the wagon, and the girls checked them out.  The girls started pealing them and got the juice in their eyes and mouth.  They started crying and Ed ran back to them to see what was wrong.  He looked down and saw the dark peppers, and helped the girls wash their eyes out.

Rose Marie and Sylvia can remembered the time they were cleaning Ed and Rose Marie’s bedroom.  They were moving the bed and broke a leg off.  They nailed the leg back together and didn’t tell Ed what happened.  When Ed and Rose Marie went to bed, the bed broke again.  Ed thought he did broke the bed, and he put a brick under the bed to hold it up.

The children can remember the time Ed took them to Arizona.  They were on Route 66, when they ran into a cloud burst.  Ed asked why nobody is driving in the middle and Rose Marie said that was the medium and it is full of water.  They had to pull off the road at Amarillo, Texas where they stopped to get something to eat, while the children watched mud puppies as they waited. When we got the the Grand Canyon on the south rim there where two young Indian boys and mom wanted a picture of them. One of the boys said quarter please and mom gave him one then the boy said him to please.

There was another time on the same trip while going through Yellowstone National Park, there was signs posted KEEP YOUR WINDOWS UP WHEN IN GRIZZLE AREAS.  Ed’s mother wanted a picture of the grizzly bear.  She rolled down the window to take a picture and a bear jumped up on the window.  Ed’s mother said Shoo, Shoo.  Ed said to close the window, but she couldn’t because the bear’s head was in the window.  So Ed’s mother moved over towards Rosemarie, and Rosemarie moved over to Ed almost landing in his lap.  Ed was laughing so hard he couldn’t drive.  Ed’s mother yelled Ed do something.  So Ed drove the car forward and the bear moved forward.  Then Edward drove backwards and the bear moved backwards.  Ed realized he could not budg the bear, so he just drove forward until the bear dropped off.

Dad use to take the family camping a lot to the La Cross area to go fishing. We use to go to Goose Island and some times up to Alma at a small campground there to camp. Mom or dad would give each of us kids a nickel to buy corn to feed the ducks and geese.

These are some of the bluffs on the way to Alma, WI

This is the campground we all ways stayed at there in Alma, WI.

Veronica took Ed and Randy on a fishing trip to Prairie-du-Chien.  They set up camp and went fishing.  They put 7 people in a 12 foot boat; drove to the bay to fish when a bunch of snakes was heading towards the boat.  So Ed took an oar and started hitting the snakes and slung one snake into the boat.

Ed and his family were on the way to visit cousin Rosy.   Ed saw a raccoon on the road, so he stops the station-wagon.  Ed and Randy hit the raccoon on the head with a stick.  Thinking the raccoon was dead, they put the raccoon in the back of the car.  Vonnie and Veronica heard the raccoon Goose Island.  The kids slept in the car, but it got so hot in the car, Donna, Vonnie, Sylvia, and Veronica decided to sleep on the picnic table.  They saw a skunk and Vonnie, Sylvia, and Veronica ran to the out-house and stayed there for a long time; while Donna stayed on the picnic table.  In the meantime, Ed and Rose Marie was looking for the girls and found them in the out-house.  Then they asked the girls why they were there and the three of them said a skunk chased them.

When us kids where smaller dad would take us to Canada some times to go fishing.

There was a trip to Alaska, Ed stopped and set up camp site.  It started to rain.  Rosemarie was making supper in the camper and the wind started blowing very hard.  Ed, Carl, Donna, Vonnie, and Sylvia had to do out and hold the tarps down to the camper.  After the rain, Vonnie, Sylvia, and a friend wanted to go boating.  Ed said okay, but don’t untie the boat.  Naturally they did not listen.  The current was so strong they could not handle the boat.  Ed kept telling them to row the boat into the weeds and Sylvia started screaming “No! No! No!! Not the Weeds!!”  So the owner of the campsite took Ed out to the girls and brought them back to the shore.

Ed, Randy and Johnny went on a fishing trip to Fremont.  Ed had just brought his first boat.  They went down to the mouth of the Wolf River and ran out of gas.  So Johnny jumped out of the boat and walked the boat (approximately 5 miles) back to the landing.

I remember a lot times when we took dad down to the restaurant dad would ask what we got to eat or what are they eating over there. Some times he would why can't I have that?  Some times he would say the food test like crap.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       His family had a lot of good times and memories of their father and husband; and their life with him.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Our family have many fond memories with dad  that we can't even fit on here. He will be sadly miss by us all and many of his friends that he had made on many trips.

The next pages are pictures of dad and the family through the years that we grow up.