Carol Joan Strupp (née Kleinheinz) of Greenfield, Wisconsin entered eternal life on Friday, November 20, 2020 at the age of 91. Loving mother of Thomas J. (Linda) Strupp, Carol A. (Kevin) Rapp, Robert J. Strupp, James F. (Vicky) Strupp, and John P. (Kathleen) Strupp; and grandmother of Christopher, Ashley, Julie, Marisa, Amy, Andrew, Matthew, Adam, and Anna. Great-grandmother of George, Henry, Rosalie, Peter, and Wesley; and aunt of a multitude of nieces and nephews.
Carol was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Robert M. Strupp; her parents, John and Alvina Kleinheinz; her identical twin, Lois Jean Fleming; other sisters, Sister Romaine Kleinheinz, Dorothy Eisenach, Patricia Hamerly, Alice Rounds, Jeanne Jaeger; and brothers, John Jr. and James Kleinheinz. She is survived by her sister Phyllis Lattimer.
Carol Joan was born on August 31, 1929 and raised in Wausau, Wisconsin where she lived with her family in a stately residence on Grand Avenue and spent her summers at Jeanhaven, the family cottage on nearby Pike Lake. The freezer there was always stocked with ice cream from Kleinheinz Dairy. At Wausau Senior High, she was an avid fan of the legendary Lumberjacks, the winningest football team in state history.
Carol graduated from Duluth’s College of St. Scholastica (St. Mary’s School of Nursing) on June 29, 1950, which she attended with her twin sister, Lois. After moving to Milwaukee, she began a 45-year career as a neonatal ICU nurse at St. Joseph Hospital where she gave tender loving care to countless premature (“preemie”) babies.
Carol Kleinheinz met a young baker by the name of Bob Strupp at a dance at St. Leo Parish on Milwaukee’s north side. They wed on May 24, 1952 and were together 58 happy years until his passing in 2010. Carol balanced her nursing career with raising a family of five children at the Strupp bungalow on North 39th Street in the Sherman Park neighborhood. She was an active member of St. Anne Parish.
In 1982, Carol and her husband Bob relocated to their new home on North 93rd Street on Milwaukee’s northwest side and relished 23 joyful years there. In 2005, they moved to the retirement community of Clement Manor in Greenfield. Carol resided there for 15 years, thriving in a loving, Catholic faith-based environment.
Carol reveled in reading suspense novels by Mary Higgins Clark and medical thrillers by Robin Cook. She excelled at the board game of Scrabble and, in her later years, kept her wits playing endless rounds of the online version with her son John. She loved roses and sunshine, and without doubt, her favorite color was blue.
Carol Strupp was an exemplary mother and a devout Roman Catholic. Her family considered her saintly, and she conveyed her Christian faith with never-ending kindness and cheerfulness towards everyone.
A Mass of Christian Burial (open to all) will be held at St. Mary Catholic Faith Community at 11:00 AM on Friday, December 4, 2020. The church is located in Hales Corners at 9520 West Forest Home Avenue. The viewing and graveside prayer service will be private. There will be no post-funeral gathering on this date due to current community health circumstances. The family is grateful for the assemblage of friends and relatives who celebrated Carol’s life at her 90th birthday party in August 2019.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Carol’s memory to:
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin https://giving.childrenswi.org/ways-to-give
Clement Manor https://www.clementmanor.com/donate-now
Linda Bulmahn
left a message on November 29, 2020:
