Mary Elizabeth Hensel

Mary Elizabeth (Mollers) Hensel, 81, died on Wednesday, December 31, 2014, at Hillview Healthcare Center in La Crosse. She was raised baptized, confirmed, and married) in the Christian Lutheran faith in which she remained her entire life.

Mary was born on March 11, 1933, in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Matthias and Grace (Hendricks) Mollers. Her uncle, Dr. Esten Hendricks, delivered her. Mary attended Marcy Grade School and Marshall High School, both in Minneapolis. After high school, she received two years of nurses’ training at Northwestern Hospital. It had been a dream throughout her youth to be a medical missionary in Africa with Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Mary worked as a telephone operator with Bell Telephone Company and also worked for the Pillsbury Company, both in Minneapolis. For three years, she was a stewardess with Northwest Orient operating out of Minneapolis where she met her husband, Daniel James Hensel. They were married on July 29, 1958, at Fort Snelling Chapel in Saint Paul.

Mary and her husband, Daniel, lived in Enumclaw, Washington from 1959 to 1961 before settling in Western Wisconsin (Burr Oak 1961-1993, Genoa 1993-2005, and La Crosse 2005-2014) for the rest of their lives. They had six children.

Mary had a beautiful voice. She loved to sing and had a great appreciation for classical music. Her father was second trombone in the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra for 32 years. Her uncle was also in the same orchestra, serving as principal French horn. She loved to read the great authors and learn about any subject. She was a perceptive conservationist (which she preferred to refer to as being a good steward of God’s earth) and an astute natural health advocate – both inclinations were unusually ahead of her time.

Mary is survived by her husband, Daniel (La Crosse, Wisconsin); five children, Heidi (Hoza) Wright (Genoa, Wisconsin), Heather (Kevin) Milner (Green Bay, Wisconsin), Peter (Jessika) Hensel (Saint Louis, Missouri), Mary Beth Hensel (La Crosse, Wisconsin), and Joseph Britta) Hensel (South Chittenden, Vermont); 18 grandchildren; and 15 nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents, Matthias and Grace (Hendricks) Mollers; her son, Daniel James Hensel, Jr. born on Easter Sunday); two sisters, Catherine (James) Thompsen and Cecelia (DuWayne) Peterson; and one niece, Ann (Hensel) Jaeger.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Monday, January 5, 2015, at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church in Melrose, Wisconsin. Pastor Floyd Brand will officiate. There will be a visitation with pre-service music beginning at 10:00 a.m. A luncheon will follow the service in the church basement. Mary will be buried in Grace Lutheran Cemetery near Valders, Wisconsin on Tuesday, January 6th. Gifts and memorials can be made to Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.