Funeral services for Esther Laura Weiser, 88, of Elk River, will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Jeff Laeger-Hagemeister will officiate. Interment will be at Graceland Cemetery. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.
Esther died Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009, at Guardian Angel Care Center in Elk River.
Esther Laura Weiser was born Aug. 15, 1920, to August and Laura (Niebuhr) Brandenburg in Waldorf. She grew up in the Waldorf/Wells/Freeborn area and attended school in Wells. Esther was united in marriage to William Weiser in 1940. The couple lived and farmed in the Clarks Grove area. William died in 1953. Esther remarried and lived in the Glenville area. Later, Esther moved to the Alexandria area, returning to Albert Lea area in the 1970’s. She worked for St. John’s Lutheran Home for 20-plus years until retiring in the 1990s. Esther went to live with her daughter Betsy in 2001 in Zimmerman and then to Elk River. She was a member of North Freeborn Lutheran Church. Esther enjoyed gardening, handiwork, arts, crafts, reading, painting, and bird watching. She raised poultry and various kinds of game birds.
Survivors include her children: Janice Smidt, Elaine Thurston, Robert Weiser, William Weiser and Elizabeth Wait; 11 grandchildren: John, Jeffrey, Debi, Scott, Mark, Eric, Ryan, BreAnn, William, Christian, and Lukas; 16 great-grandchildren; five great-great-grandchildren; sister, Edna and her husband Vincent Hunnicutt; sister-in-law, Neva Neubauer; and many nieces and nephews.
Esther was preceded in death by her parents; husband, William; infant son; sisters: Laura and her husband Hank Kelling, Dorothy and her husband Otis Hunnicutt and Alice and her husband George Schmidt; and brother, Walter Brandenburg.