Cheryl L. Sauke, 59, of Blooming Prairie, lost her battle with glioblastoma (brain cancer) on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, at Homestead Hospice House in Owatonna. Cheryl Lee Witzke was born April 6, 1953, in Storm Lake, Iowa, Buena Vista County, to Byron and Blanche (Huffman) Witzke. She was baptized into the Lutheran faith at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Newell, Iowa, on Mother’s Day 1953. She began kindergarten in Alta, Iowa. In January 1961 she moved with her parents and sisters to Medford. She was confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in Medford in 1967 and graduated from Medford High School in 1971. She went on to get her medical secretarial degree in Winona and worked within the Mayo Clinic Health System and elsewhere as a secretary/transcriptionist for more than 37 years. On Feb. 8, 1975, she married Dennis Sauke at Trinity in Medford. They made their home on the Sauke family farm in rural Ellendale. They were blessed with two sons: Christopher and Kelly.

Survivors include her husband Dennis of rural Blooming Prairie; two sons: Christopher (Amy) of Hampton, Iowa, and Kelly (Tressa) of Minnesota City; three grandchildren: Keturah, Benji and Isaac; her mother Blanche Witzke of Owatonna; three sisters: Alyce Pittman of Waseca, Carol (Bjorn) Ottosson of Festus, Mo., and Karla (Leslie) Oeltjenbruns of Owatonna; two sisters-in-law: Janet (Donald) Hope of Blooming Prairie and Dawn (Clark) Nelson of Austin; several nieces, nephews and a host of close friends.

She was preceded in death by her father Byron; her sister Joni Smith; and a niece, Lesley Marie Oeltjenbruns.

Following cremation, a celebration of life memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie. Friends and family will meet and greet the night before from 4 to 7 p.m. in the First Lutheran Church Fireside Room. Interment will be in the Geneva Cemetery. Memorials are preferred to First Lutheran Church of Blooming Prairie or Virginia Piper Cancer Institute, Neuro-Science Division, Abbott-Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis. Worlein Blooming Prairie Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements. Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.worlein.com.