Wilma L. Howarth Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Wilma L. Howarth, age 100, of Elizabeth, Illinois, passed away Monday, September 2, 2019 at Winchester House, Libertyville, Illinois. A funeral service will be held at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, September 7, 2019 at the First United Methodist Church, Elizabeth. Burial will take place in the Elizabeth Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., prior to the service at the church. Wilma was the middle child of Herman and Mathilda Burgi. She was preceded in death by her older sister, Lillian Lenatsch, older brother, August Burgi, younger brother Carl Burgi and younger sister, Hilda Holland. Wilma grew up in a rural area of Monroe, Wisconsin known as Frog Hollow. Wilma and her siblings lost their father Herman to cancer at the age of 39. Mathilda still did a great job of raising her five children to be respectable and successful adults. After graduating from high school in Monroe; Wilma attended business and technical school in Beloit, Wisconsin. Upon graduating from Beloit, she worked in Monroe as a bookkeeper at the Chevy garage and as a teller for the Commercial and Savings Bank in Monroe. Wilma and Harlan Howarth met while they both were working in Monroe. They dated and fell in love. They were married in Monroe, Wisconsin on October 24, 1948. They then moved to Elizabeth, Illinois and took over Harlan’s father’s 156-acre dairy farm in rural Elizabeth, Illinois. They both loved farming and small town country life. Wilma assisted with the daily duties of farm life. She also played an important role with the bookkeeping details associated with Harlan’s other two part time jobs selling seed corn and hail and windstorm insurance. On June 2, 1952, they welcomed the birth of their son, James Howarth. Wilma and Harlan retired from farming in the early 1980’s and moved into a home in Elizabeth. They lived there until the summer of 1996 when they moved to Waukegan, Illinois and dwelled in an in-law apartment of their son, James Howarth’s home. Harlan passed away in January of 2002 from complications of congestive heart failure. Wilma had many interests which included flowers, gardening, cooking, enjoying nature, listening to country and western music and classic rock, she developed an interest in Chicago professional sports teams and took great pleasure in helping to care for the family dogs. She also enjoyed keeping up on current events, certain television programs, looking over old family photos and deeply enjoyed sharing her love and nurturing ways and warm personality with family and friends. Wilma lived to be 100 years old and celebrated at a nice party with over 40 family and friends on February 9, 2019. She was in great spirits that day and talked about it for weeks afterwards. Wilma took several falls at home in late June due to dehydration. After a hospital stay, she moved to Winchester House in Libertyville to rehab. During her rehab a hip fracture was discovered, and she underwent a partial hip replacement surgery on July 18th. She returned to Winchester House to rehab from a successful surgery and though she gave it her best effort, could not quite overcome the issues associated with recovering from it at that age. She always treated people with warmth and respect and will be remembered that way by those who had the pleasure of being in her company. God bless you Wilma and congratulations on living a wonderful life. Wilma will be dearly missed by her son, James (Joan) Howarth of Waukegan, Illinois and several nieces and nephews.

Wilma L. Howarth

February 6, 1919 - September 2, 2019