Eileen Keipe

Eileen Schrader Keipe, age 97, of Green Lake, WI, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, February 24, 2015, at Maplecrest in Ripon.

She was born on February 13, 1918, in the Town of Berlin, the daughter of Fred and Emma (Zimmerman) Schrader. As Eileen was growing up she was active in 4-H, doing gardening and sewing. She modeled the dress she made at the Wisconsin State Fair and spent the entire week living under the grandstand. In 1934, she was the outstanding 4-H Club member of Green Lake County and was sent to the National 4-H Club Congress in Chicago.

Eileen graduated from Berlin High School, Green Lake County Normal with a teaching certificate, and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh with a B.S. in education. She first taught in rural schools: Apple Grove, Woodlawn, Sugar Loaf, and Forest Ridge for 9 ½ years. Then she taught in the Green Lake Public Schools for 33 years for a total of 42 ½ years. In 1973, She was selected as an Outstanding Elementary Teacher of America, and in 1980, she was the Teacher of the Year at Green Lake Public Schools. Eileen was given a Mathematics Education Citation for 25 years of distinguished service.

On May 27, 1939, she married Lewis E. Keipe at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ripon, WI. They bought a home on Lake Street in Green Lake, and raised their two daughters, Connie, a nurse, and Carla, a teacher.

Eileen was a member of the Green Lake Federated Church, Green Lake Education Association, the Mathematics Council, the Retired Teacher’s Association, Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Dartford Educational Club, the Green Lake-Ripon Order of the Eastern Star, Royal Neighbors of America, the Green Lake Seniors, and Alpha Phi Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma an Honor Teacher’s Society. She served on the Caestecker Library Board, the Caestecker Scholarship Committee, the Dartford Cemetery Board, and several boards of The Federated Church of Green Lake. Eileen became a Girl Scout in her 80’s and served as a troop committee member for her granddaughter’s troop.

She loved to teach, read, do crafts and needlework, play cards, dance, walk, swim, travel, to plant flowers and trees, watch birds, collect rocks and fossils, enjoy nature, and to spend time with family and friends. She stated that teaching children kept you young. In her travels, Eileen went to Europe twice, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. She toured all 50 states and went to Hawaii twice.

She is survived by two daughters, Connie (Wilfred) Meier of Bristol, WI, and Carla (John) Goode of Green Lake, WI; three grandchildren, Bill (Cathy) Meier of Watertown, WI, Brenda (Jody) Hafeman of Kansasville, WI, and Katherine Goode of Madison, WI; and five great-grandchildren, Joelle (Matt) Happ of Salem, WI, and Collin Hafeman of Bristol, WI, and Elise, Audrey, and Maria Eileen Meier of Watertown; and two great-great-grandchildren, Cooper and Austin Happ of Salem, WI. Eileen was preceded in death by her parents, Fred and Emma Schrader, her husband, Lewis E. Keipe, December 2, 1986, and her brother, Roy and wife, Ruby Schrader.

Visitation for Eileen will be held on Saturday, February 28, 2015, from 9 – 11:00 am at The Federated Church of Green Lake, 489 Scott St., Green Lake, WI 54941.

Memorial service for Eileen will be held on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 11:00 am at The Federated Church of Green Lake in Green Lake. Reverend Karen Gygax Rodriguez will officiate. Inurnment will follow at Dartford Cemetery in Green Lake. In lieu of flowers a memorial has been established in her honor.

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