June 25, 1931 - Jan. 22, 2008
WILLMAR -- Eileen E. Gratz, 76, of Willmar died Tuesday at Bethesda Heritage Center in Willmar.
The service will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Kandiyohi. Burial will be at St. John's Lutheran Cemetery in Atwater.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the church and for one hour prior to the service Saturday at the church. Arrangements are with the Harvey Anderson Funeral Home in Willmar.
She was born on June 25, 1931, in Brownton to Herman and Elsie (Rademacher) Schmidt. She attended district 31, country school and graduated in 1948 from Brownton High School.
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She married Richard Gratz Aug. 12, 1951, in Brownton. They lived in LeSueur until moving to Atwater in 1957 when they starting farming. They lived in Kandiyohi from 1960 and continued to farm. In 1976, they moved into Willmar. She had worked in housekeeping at Bethesda Heritage Center for 16 years. She retired in 1991.
She was a 4-H leader and was in a bowling league.
She was a member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church, where she was a Sunday school teacher, confirmation teacher and served on the altar committee.
She is survived by her husband; children: Doug Gratz of Kandiyohi, Konnie (and Lee) Carity of Atwater, Deb (and Wayne) Odland of Spicer; six grandchildren; siblings: Ruth (and Bob) Fredrickson of Hector, Marilyn (and Ron) Sell of Glencoe, Lloyd (and Pat) Schmidt of Brownton, Barb (and Chuck) Peik of Gaylord, and Judy (and Dale) Schumann of Hutchinson.
She was preceded in death by a son: Tom; and two brothers.