Laverne M. Wittig
Laverne M. Wittig
(Née Lazarski)
Even after 98 years she left us too soon on Monday, August 17, 2026.
Beloved wife of the late Donald for 44 years. Loving mother of Mike (Paulette Getschman), Chuck (Joan) and Nancy. Dear grandmother of Kelly (Dave) Crampton, Matthew Wittig, Lauren (Kyle) Meints, and great-grandmother of William, Charlotte and Leo. Further survived by nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.
Preceded in death by her husband Donald, her sister Vivian (the late Jack) Szymborski, and her brother Rev. Marvin Lazarski.
Visitation will be held on Tuesday, August 25, 2026 at 10 AM at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, 3160 S. 63rd St., Milwaukee, followed by the Mass of Christian Burial at 11 AM. Interment at Holy Trinity Cemetery, 3564 S. 13th St., Milwaukee.
Her earliest years came during the Great Depression. As a carpenter, her father built a variety of homes throughout the city, and the family lived in a number of those dwellings over the years.
As an indication of the span of her life, the family remembers how she told of the coming of the Socialists in Milwaukee, hearing about Pearl Harbor on the way home from church, the rise and fall of Hitler and Nazi Germany, the building of the freeways, Prohibition coming and going, Sputnik, polio and the vaccine, the Brewers then Braves then Brewers again, and much more.
Schools attended included Doerfler, St. Ignatius, Walker Junior High, where she met her longest-term friend Caroline, now 99, and South Division High (the old dome of which now forms the roof of the Blums Coffee Shop in Greenfield). Some of her other oldest and dearest friends, including Gracie, Shirley, Lorraine and Ruth dated to those school years and the old neighborhood as well.
After high school she worked in a variety of places including Miller Furnace, Clarevan Plastics, and Northwestern Mutual Insurance (where company policy made her leave when she married Don after meeting him at social activities at Holy Ghost Church). Children came, including Michael, Chuck and Nancy.
A home on 55th Street built by Grandpa came in 1953. St. Gregory the Great was the family church, and she was active in Christian Mothers and a variety of volunteering, and sent all 3 children there. Card clubs including old school friends, sheepshead and canasta were a favorite social activity.
Sewing was a major hobby, and she made many different, high-quality clothes for everyone in the family as well as many things such as curtains and tablecloths for the house. Beginning around 1970 and continuing until her retirement in 2000, she worked for Milwaukee Public Schools in the office and as a Teachers Aide at Fairview, 67th Street, 88th Street, Hamilton, Whitman, Scholls, Curtin Schools and others. At Curtin she was the Computer Specialist until retiring.
All 3 children graduated college. There were a variety of big family trips, including South Dakota/Mount Rushmore, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, and the Smokey Mountains and many rides to Chuck’s, and one to Lauren in Iowa. She learned to drive on a 1947 DeSoto.
The house was always meticulously clean and she expected detail-mindedness from everyone. Family picnics on both the Wittig and Lazarski sides and July 4th picnics with the Krolikowskis and Nick & Ginny Wittig were annual events. At the Lazarski picnics she became the matriarch of the family and thus a celebrity of sorts. Round Robins at Christmas happened with both family and friends. At the Whitnall Park gift shop, she was a weekly volunteer.
Toward the end, Nancy was the caregiver for almost 10 years, making it possible for Mom to to stay in the house through the end, and the 2 were always best friends.
It is said that we grieve not so much for others but for ourselves and what we personally have lost as a good person passes from our life, and we have indeed lost much with her dying.
