SHORT BIO (2004) - Leoba F. Wiesner was born on July 10, 1906 in Victoria, Kansas to Alexander B. and Katharina "Catherine" (Windholz) Brungardt. She had 13 brothers and sisters. Some died in infancy or early childhood. The family spoke German in the household. Leoba could still understand most of it into advanced age. When she was ten years old, her father died as a result of a heart attack in Wichita, Kansas while on a business trip. After her father died, she lived with relatives for a year. As soon as she was able, she traveled bumpy roads selling musical instruments door-to-door with her brothers, sister Ida and sister-in-law Catherine (nee Dome) to earn money to support themselves. They traveled to Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota and other states close to Kansas. At the tender age of 17, the seeds of romance were planted with her future husband Frank Wiesner. The responsibilities of helping to support her family were her first priority. She worked at the campus bookstore of Fort Hays College in her early twenties, then left Victoria to attend nursing school at St. Anthony Hospital in Sabetha, Kansas, where her sister Catherine was the superior, Sister Frederica. She labored hard as a nurse, often two shifts at a time. Much of her earnings went toward supporting her mother and younger siblings. While in Hays, she formed an association of nurses called the RN Club. She helped establish the Altar Society at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Hays. When her mother couldn't pay the taxes on the family home in Victoria, husband Frank had the house unearthed and moved to Hays. It became a father-and-son project when Frank's dad, Anthony Aloysius "A.A.", added beams and a foundation to the house.

On May 15, 1934, Frank and Leoba married in Omaha, Nebraska. They had five children: Donna Lee (Giebler), Patricia Ann (Staab), Mary Frances (Scherr), James Alexander and Frank Aloysius. Mary died while in surgery for a brain tumor in 1982. The other four are living. Shortly after Frank died in 1991, she moved to Colorado where she died in 2001 at 95. They are buried next to each other in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Hays, Kansas. God bless you Mom.

Obituary published in Salina Journal and Hutchinson News on September 7, 2001.

OBITUARY - Aurora, CO - Leoba Wiesner, 95, former Hays resident, died Wednesday, September 5, 2001, at Life Care Center of Aurora where she had lived the past year. She was born July 10, 1906, in Victoria to Alexander P. and Katherine (Windholz) Brungardt. She graduated from St. Anthony School of Nursing, Sabetha, Kansas in 1930. She married Francis J. "Frankie" Wiesner on May 15, 1934, in Omaha, Neb. He died Dec. 20, 1991. She was a homemaker and member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Hays. She was a lifetime Hays area resident, moving to Denver in 1992. Survivors include two sons, James, and Francis; two daughters, Donna Giebler and Patricia Staab, 12 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by eight brothers: Adolph, Bill, Fred, Joe, Dan and three infants; five sisters, Sister Frederica Brungardt, Helen (Alphonse) Weigel, Tillie (John) Lederhos, Ida (Vale) Miller and Alexia (Albert "Red") Dreiling; and a daughter, Mary (Timothy) Scherr. Services will be at 10 a.m., Saturday at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Hays, with Father Earl Befort officiating; burial in St. Joseph Cemetery, Hays. Visitation will be until 8 p.m. today and from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. Saturday at Cline's Mortuary of Hays, 1919 East 22nd. A vigil service will be at 7 p.m. today at the mortuary. Memorials are suggested to the Holy Family Elementary School or Masses.