May 12, 1953 – May 10, 2024
Jolie Rae Foelker (King) nee Werner came into the world early in the morning May 12th of 1953 to parents Dorothy May Werner (Marquart) (March 15, 1916 – Dec. 18, 2001) and Howard Robert Werner (Sept. 2, 1912 – Dec. 25, 1995) in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. She was the youngest of three including her middle brother Michael Frank who preceded her in death (February 18, 1945 – May 24, 2012) and her eldest brother Terry Tim (Jan. 5, 1939). As she said in her own words, “as the tag along pain in the butt, little (VERY, VERY, little sister.” Jolie fought a long, arduous, and most of all courageous battle against Glioblastoma, but after 3.5 years of fighting like a warrior, sadly the Glio won. Her battle is over and so is her suffering. She’s going home to see her mom, dad, brother, and son Jonathan Matthew Foelker who passed in infancy.
Jolie brought three children into this world and she loved them endlessly. Abigail Jo Foelker, Jonathan Matthew Foelker (July 29-30, 1983) and Stephanie Rose Scibek (Foelker).
The rest of this obituary is best said by the beautiful lady who actually lived it and wrote it.
Take it away Mom!
“I attended Badger School until 3rd grade when I got bused to the big city to further my education. I was brilliant until then, winning spelling bees and best dressed awards in my class of 5 at Badger country School.
I got thru 9 more excruciatingly intense years of gym classes and assemblies and after graduation went to Madison to mainly protest the Vietnam War and then did a stint at UW-Whitewater. From there I bought a VW beetle and traveled mostly alone to where my heart called me. Out to see mountains and the shores of the pacific. Westward drawn.
When I’d used up my savings, home beckoned me.
So limping back home, I took out more school loans (oh horrors!) and attended business school and lived and worked in the Milwaukee area until I met Matt Foelker from Hebron and achieved my dream status of country farm wife, Mom and homemaker, bread baker, landscaper, dressmaker, bowl scraper, egg breaker, risk-taker and head waiter. I raised calves, kids, orphaned kittens and abandoned feathered friends. And always found room for the two-legged kind in need.
Bandaged the injured, doctored the sick, removed splinters and sutures. Chased errant cattle, was chased by hot-tempered cattle and tackled escaping young stock. I pitched manure, carried feed, hay bales that weighed almost as much as I, and I carried my weight among the hearty men, Foelkers, that were my adopted family for more than 30 years but finally farming defeated me.
I gave up my bibs and moved to Oklahoma and worked in the western oil fields, guiding drilling rigs and oversized equipment on the roads of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana as a pilot truck driver. Ensuring the safety of my guys and millions of dollars worth of oversized loads from location to location. Working for a Crane and Trucking Company for a few years, when once again home and my kids beckoned.
So I took off my hardhat and got out of tornado alley. But I brought back with me my most cherished memories of the prairies and plains of my western adventures as well as the love and friendship of the men I worked with who never hesitated to help me, teach me and give me a hard-earned and slow-learned sense of self-confidence and self-respect. They pulled me up and gave me friendship when I was at my lowest point of my life, I am forever grateful to these hard working, generous, gentle giants of the highways.
Once again I found myself back in Wisconsin, dusting the red earth from my traveling shoes and reconnecting with family and friends, one of which was an old high school buddy, Mike King, who asked me out for pizza and to be his wife. (a few months later).
We traveled between Wisconsin and Florida as snowbirds where we owned a beautiful home across the river and through the scrub, over the gators, 20 miles from the coast and from NASA and Cape Canaveral and we watched many rocket launches sitting on the back porch. Spending winters in Titusville, Florida and summers in Fort Atkinson in our century-plus home. She’s always smelled so old wood, musty and antique to me. And she feels like she’s been waiting for me. I really love her. She’s old but feels warm like Gramma’s arms around me. She is HOME, where I feel comfortable.
I’ve traveled and seen so much, so many places in my lifetime. And mostly my feet have pointed to Southern cities and landmarks, but the West has always been my magnet. “
And that’s all that she wrote.
In conclusion this obituary will be finalized with Jolie’s favorite quote (slightly modified) from her favorite movie, Fried Green Tomatoes,
“Let her go, let her go. You know miss ‘Jolie’ was a lady and a lady always knows when to leave.”
Dunlap Memorial Home in Fort Atkinson is assisting the family.
Jolie Rae Foelker (King)
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