Obit: Rasmussen, Barbara #3 (1941 - 1963)

Contact stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Rasmussen, Petkovsek, Peissig, Boxrucker,

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 12/12/1963

Rasmussen, Barbara #3 (1 FEB 1941 - 3 DEC 1963)

Mrs. Roy Rasmussen, 22, Rt. 3, Greenwood (Clark Co., Wis.) was found dead late Tuesday afternoon with a bullet wound in the head. A .300 Savage lever action rifle lay nearby. Her death was ruled a suicide.

Her body was found by James Petkovsek, an employee of the Walter Rasmussen Cheese Factory, who was delivering whey.

He told county authorities that when he drove into the yard of the Rasmussen home their two small daughters came from the house and the oldest, Cheryl, age three and one-half, told him that her mother had shot herself and was dead.

He found the body on the living room floor. He took the children to the home of their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Rasmussen. The dead woman’s husband, employed in his father’s cheese factory, was just leaving for home when he was informed of the death.

Officials said Mrs. Rasmussen was suffering from a mental condition and had spent most of the summer and early fall at Mendota in Madison. Authorities ruled the death suicide after a lengthy investigation.

Funeral services were held Friday at the Hill Funeral Home and at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenwood for Mrs. Rasmussen. The Rev. Fr. Edward Hartung officiated and burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

She is survived by her husband; two daughters, Cheryl and Dawn; her mother, Mrs. William Peissig, Owen; two brothers, Duane and Dale, and a sister, Diane, all of Owen; and her grandmother, Mrs. Anton Boxrucker, Owen.