Kathy A. Wagner

Kathleen A. (Weiss) Wagner of La Crosse passed away on November 8, 2019 at the Brookwood Assisted Living Facility, 18 months after suffering a stroke. Kathy was born in La Crosse Wisconsin on August 4, 1941, only child of Clarence and Geneva Weiss and was loved beyond measure. While growing up, Kathy was proud to claim the Goosetown Neighborhood as her stomping grounds. She attended St. Joe’s Catholic grade school and graduated in 1959 from Aquinas High School. Kathy was the first person in her family to attend college graduating with a degree in Sociology, from Mount Mary College, in Milwaukee, WI.

Soon after moving back to La Crosse, Kathy met the love of her life, James Wagner, and was soon married. A year after marriage, Kathy and Jim became parents of their son David and eight years later they became parents to Sarah. Once they had David, Kathy stopped working and put all her time and energy into being a stay at home mom, a job that she cherished.

Kathy had a way of helping kids feel important and making a small mark on their lives, whether serving lunch for the neighborhood kids on the front porch of her old central neighborhood home, volunteering in her children’s class rooms at Cathedral Grade school, or working as an aid in the La Crosse School District over an almost thirty year career.

When Kathy was 48, she became a widow, and after being home with her children for 24 years, Kathy went to work as a teacher assistant in the La Crosse School District. Kathy was extremely lucky to have found a second career that she truly loved and excelled in. Kathy worked at Spence Elementary in the special education program and finished her career in the La Crosse School District at State Road Elementary as an aide in the Library. There were many times that Kathy would be in the community with her family, and students and their parents would come and say hello to “Mrs. Wagner, the library lady”. Due to her stroke Kathy had not been back to school for a year, but the day that she returned, for her retirement party, there were students that came over to give her hugs. Kathy touched the lives of many children and was ever grateful for the mark that they made on her life.  Kathy was still working full time at the young age of 77 when she suffered a stroke, while at work. Despite the challenges that resulted from her stroke, Kathy took it in stride and worked hard to maintain a positive outlook on things. Despite many setbacks, she continued to fight and show her family and friends just how tough she truly was.

During her tenure with the school District, Kathy was proud to have been the union president for the Teacher Assistant’s union. Kathy also served her community by being a member of the United Way Fund Distribution Steering Committee for many years, helping to allocate United Way dollars to better help residents of the community in need.

When Kathy’s children married Laura and Dustin, she looked at it as having two more children in the family, and she loved them as much as she did her own children. She was so grateful for the love they give David and Sarah. Kathy was proud to have had Laura and Dustin in her family and she cherished her relationship with them. Although Kathy’s children and their spouses were important to her, none of them were naïve to the fact that the true loves of her life were her two grandchildren Karl and Mary Wagner. Kathy would light up when talking about Karl and Mary. Kathy was happy to be the taxi driver getting the kids to their activities, she was always in the crowd cheering them on and her house was the place to be for sleepovers or just to hang out after school. Karl and Mary enjoyed many nights of Chinese takeout, homemade meatballs going to the symphony and lots of relaxing while watching television or playing card games. Kathy was so proud of everything about them and loved them more than they could possibly ever know.

Kathy is survived by her son David (Laura) Wagner and their children Karl and Mary and her daughter Sarah (Dustin) Barton.

She is also survived by her sister’s in law Maryann (Ken) Pratt, Carol Klingberg, and Susan Houlihan as well as her brother in law Roger Valley (Marlene Duffy). She is further survived by her nephews Tim (Ann) Valley and their son Henry, Matt (Trish) Valley and their son’s Sean and Joe, Kevin (Laura) Houlihan and their daughter Stella. She is also survived by her nieces, Katie (Troy) Clarity and their children Alex and Erinn, Alex Wagner (Sam Kass) and their son’s Cy and Rafael and Ellen Houlihan.

Kathy was preceded in death by her parents, her husband James Wagner, sister in law Dorothy Valley, and brother in law Carl Wagner.

There are so many people that touched Kathy’s life and some longtime friends that she was so grateful to have lift her up when she needed it and share in the moments of joy with her. We would like to especially thank Tom and Mary Poellinger along with their family for always including Kathy and making her feel like a member of their family. In addition, we would like to thank Kathy’s sister-in-law Susan Houlihan who spent considerable time with Kathy after she suffered her stroke, reading books, enjoying an ice cream sundae or milk shake, talking about anything and everything, or just sitting silently together watching the birds and squirrels outside her window. Kathy’s time spent with Susan over the past 18 months provided some of the best therapy and laughs, and we will never be able to thank Aunt Susan enough for her caring and commitment of time to our mom.

Kathy was especially grateful to receive incredibly funny greeting cards and flowers from her sister-in-law Maryann, visits from sister-in-law Carol, Kathy’s cousin Kelly Greene, many of her nieces and nephews as well as extended family. Thank you also to the ladies of her bridge clubs, her symphony and community theater friends as well as many others that shared in her life.  We would also like to thank Elaine Zimmerman for always checking in, stopping by and caring so much about her, and Lori Jacobson for checking in and seeing her when she could.

The staff at Brookdale Assisted Living Facility has been amazing and we cannot thank them enough for their care and kindness. Special thanks to Carisa, Erin, Brandon, Justin, Britta, Lauren, Callie, Maggie, Bliiss, Taylor, Tyler and Anna as well as those caregivers that we didn’t mention and others that had taken care of our mom but moved on. A special thank you to Ann for the relationship you developed with our mom, and for being there with us when she passed. We want you all to know that the job you do is hard but so important and the impact that you had on our family has been a gift.

Miriam Webster defines Tough as; capable of enduring strain, hardship. Kathy has not only exhibited her toughness over the past 18 months, she has exhibited toughness throughout her entire life. It is a trait that children and grandchildren all hope that they inherited from her.

A prayer service for Kathy will be held on Friday November 15 at 3:30 P.M. followed by a celebration of life from 4:00 to 7:00 at Mary, Mother of the Church Parish Hall, 2006 Weston Street, La Crosse and a family burial will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorials in Kathy’s name can be made to Gundersen Stroke Center, The La Crosse Education Foundation, The United Fund for the Arts and Humanities.