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Elizabeth May Whitney Raehl, age 101, passed away peacefully Monday morning, June 3, 2013, in Tucson, Arizona. "Beth" was born in Phippsburg, Colorado, on May 20, 1912, to
Albert and Bertha (Blair) Whitney. When her father died in 1924 she moved with her mother and younger sister, Nancy, to be near their relatives in Jewell, Kansas. After graduating from high school, she attended Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina for a year, and then spent a few years in the early 1930's working at different jobs in Jewell and other Kansas locations where her relatives were living.
In 1936 she went to live with an aunt and uncle in Oakland, California, and the following
year she was offered a job in Sacramento. It was during the "War Years" that she met her future husband, Walter Raehl, who had been raised on a dairy farm near Larsen, Wisconsin, and was helping the cause as a civilian electrician at McClellan Field Air Force Base in
Sacramento. They were married on March 7, 1943. Four years and four babies later they
decided "a farm would be a better place to bring up youngsters," so they broke ties in California and moved to the Raehl homestead where three more children eventually joined the family.
When the children were raised and Walter retired from farming, they did a lot of traveling with their camper, partly to visit family and friends across the country, and also to spend the winter seasons in the warmer climate of Arizona. In 1993 they moved permanently to Arizona, first in the area near Roosevelt Lake, and later to a mobile home park in Tucson. Not long after Walter passed away in 2002, Beth was moved to Rosa's Chante, an assisted living home in the same area of Tucson.
Beth gained early in life a deep faith in God which carried through to her children and their families. She was a loving, talented person whose gifts to family members were usually hand-made works of art, created with love.
She was preceded in death by her faithful husband, Walter; her sister, Nancy; a baby brother; and an infant grandson, Brian Paul Raehl.
Her surviving children are James Walter (Jerrie Lyn), John Christian (Joyce Marie), Iris Marie (Cliff) Beattie, Daniel Albert (Kaydee), Thomas Helmut (Dollie), Suzanne Louise (Allan) Judd, and Julia Lee (Stephen) Shumko. Beth's posterity also includes 28 grandchildren and 47 great-grandchildren (plus one due in August).
As Beth's children, we would like to express deepest appreciation to Anthony Diaz and his staff at Rosa's Chante for all the loving care given to our dear mother during her last decade of life.
A funeral service will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2013, at 11:00 a.m. at Mueller Funeral Home, 904 E. Main St, Winneconne, with burial in the Clayton Cemetery near Larsen.
Please submit online condolences to muellerfuneralhomeinc.com.

Mueller Funeral Home
Winneconne
(920) 582-4242