A memorial Mass for Kathleen A. (Warmka) Wilder will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017, at St. Theodore Catholic Church, Albert Lea, Minnesota. Father Kurt Farrell and Father Brad Pelzel will officiate. A visitation will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at Bonnerup Funeral Service, Albert Lea, and again one hour prior to the service at the church.

Kathleen passed away peacefully surrounded by family on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, at her home in Albert Lea.

Kathleen Ann (Warmka) Wilder was born in Naeve Hospital in Albert Lea on Sept. 14, 1942.  She was the daughter of Louis and Kathryn Warmka of Easton, Minnesota. She attended grades 1 – 9 at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Schools in Easton. She graduated from Wells High School in 1960. She attended St. Benedict College in St. Joseph, Minnesota. She taught her first year at St. Mary’s Junior High in Albert Lea in 1963. She married her high school sweetheart, Norbert Wilder, on June 24, 1964. They were blessed with four sons, Philip, Paul, Patrick, and Jeff.

She continued to teach at St. Casimir’s Catholic School in Wells for the next five years. After her first three sons were born, she stayed at home to give them their first years of formation and opened a daycare in 1973. She was employed by Albert Lea Independent School District 241 in 1983 and continued to work there until 2010.

Kathleen was a member of St. Theodore Catholic Church, a past president of the Knights of Columbus Auxiliary, and a member of the Women of the Moose. She loved all children and served them by being a media clerk in school for 25 years, having a daycare for 10 years, teaching religious education classes at St. Theodore, being a leader in Boy Scouts for 20 years, and a foster parent for 101 children over a 35-year period.

Since her retirement, she was able to continue her hobbies of costume creation, quilting, and flower arranging, and writing books about her grandchildren. She volunteered for hospice. It gave her great peace and joy to help those in the wonderful hospice program walk their final journey. The highlight of her summers was always Cousin’s Camp where she was camp director and her 15 grandkids and grandnieces and nephews spent time together at Camp Wilder.

She is survived by the love of her life, her husband, Norbert Wilder of Albert Lea; her sons, Philip (Saralyn) Wilder, of Austin, Minnesota, and their children, Zach (Mallory), Katie, Drew (Cassy), Natalie, Ellie (Tony), Mitchell, and Eric; son, Paul (Ellie) Wilder of Faribault, Minnesota, and their children, Louis, Sarah, Teresa, Emily, and Monica; son, Patrick Wilder of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and his children, Jake and Tess; son, Jeff (Roxanne) Wilder of Albert Lea and their children, Anthony, Noah, Carlito, and Mia; siblings, James Warmka, Helen Botzet, Margaret Barrett, Rosemary Cavadini, Thomas (Cheryl) Warmka, John (Carol) Warmka, and Daniel (Deb) Warmka; brothers and sisters-in-law, John Haley, Sherry Warmka, Jeri Warmka and Marvin Wilder, of Albert Lea, Ann (Gene) Utzka of Albert Lea and Jeanette (Dennis) Wilder of Minneapolis; 66 nieces and nephews; and 31 grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Louis and Kathyrn Warmka; sisters, Mary Ann Warmka and Rita Haley; brothers, Ed Warmka and Ken Warmka; brothers-in-law, Don Cavadini, Sylvester Botzet, Dave Wanous, and Thomas Barrett; sisters-in-law, Marian Warmka, Mary Ann Wilder, and Margaret Wanous; a great-nephew, Jacob Botzet.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.