The Lutheran Heritage Center & Museum lost a good friend this week, and today, we also celebrate another special museum anniversary. Instead of writing my usual post about a person’s life from cradle to grave, today’s article will be a two-in-one post. I will begin by telling you a little bit about Caroline Littge, who died this past Wednesday.
Caroline Marie Fischer was born on February 1, 1930, the daughter of George and Adele (Vogel) Fischer. She was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Her baptism record is displayed below.
Caroline is found in the 1940 census at the age of 10. Her father was the proprietor of a general store.
The store that Caroline’s father operated was the Fischer Cheap Store, which was located in downtown Altenburg. That store had been previously owned by Caroline’s grandfather, Edward Fischer. An old photo of that store is pictured here.
I am sure that Caroline spent much of her childhood in and around that store. In 1949, we find that Caroline was a student at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. Here is a photo of her from the yearbook from 1949 when she was just a teenager.
In the 1950 census, Caroline was living in Cape Girardeau and described as a lodger, but I have to think she was still a student at SEMO.
Caroline went on to become a teacher for a lot of years, serving in a variety of schools throughout Perry County. I remember when I moved to Altenburg in 2010, Caroline was still teaching religion classes at Immanuel Lutheran Church when she was in her 80’s.
Caroline Fischer married Vernon Littge on August 13, 1950. As you can see from Vernon’s photo below, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Vernon’s brother, Ray Littge was the ace fighter pilot from Missouri with 23 1/2 kills during that war.
When the groundbreaking for our museum took place in 2004, Caroline Littge is found in the photo below as part of the dignitaries who participated.
The museum celebrated its 20th anniversary just this past week on October 2nd, the day after Caroline died. Just a few years ago, when our museum dedicated its new South Gallery, this photo of Caroline and Gladys Engert, another longtime docent at our museum, was taken.
Ken Steinhoff sent me this photo he took several years ago when he was interviewing some of our more seasoned East Perry County residents.
We are going to miss Caroline’s presence at the museum as well as the many stories she was able to tell.
Caroline’s obituary can be found by clicking on the link below.
Now, I am going to switch gears and talk about the fact that today is the 10th anniversary of the dedication of our Starzinger Family Research Library, which took place on October 4, 2015. Prior to 2015, research material had been accumulating for quite a while, and then Ken Craft came along and started providing some amazing resources called the Zion Roots Project. Those resources became an important part of our museum’s mission of promoting family research, but they were scattered around in the museum during the early years of its existence.
In 2015, thanks to a very generous donation by David Kelly, we were able to section off part of our main gallery to house what was named the Starzinger Family Research Library. That library has been such a blessing for us, and it has made our resources much more accessible to people wanting to research their family’s history. I know that the resources found in this library are necessary for me to write stories on this blog.
When this library was dedicated 10 years ago, because I was the president of the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society at the time, I was honored to be part of the ribbon-cutting at that event. Along with me are David Kelly and Ken Craft.
The Starzinger Family Research Library is dedicated to Marjorie Starzinger Wills. A plaque and her photo can be found in the library. Perhaps you will notice that Marjorie was born during the same year as Caroline Littge.
In recognition of ten years of providing important family research resources to our visitors, I am displaying this gallery of photos taken today in the Starzinger Family Research Library.
Let me add that if you have a binder or book containing your family’s information, we would love to have a copy of it to add to our collection.
So, today we remember two things. First, we remember the life of Caroline Littge. We use the words of Matthew 25:23 to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Secondly, we remember the 10 years of service that has been provided by our museum through the Starzinger Family Research Library.