Louise Lauing Crusoe
May 25, 2018
Louise Lauing Crusoe, 97, died on Tuesday,
May 8, 2018 at her residence in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Until 2017 she lived for
many years in Bartlett, Illinois. Louise was physically active throughout
her life with boundless energy – always the life of the party. She was
well-known for her outgoing friendliness and wry sense of humor – coupled with her
entertaining obsession of consuming dark chocolate multiple times per day. She
was a loving and attentive wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and
aunt. By far, Louise’s greatest passion and pride was her family. An enthusiastic and skilled golfer for
decades, she played well into her nineties with family and in two weekly
women’s leagues. Her accomplishments on the links include the rare golf achievement
of two hole-in-ones. In addition to golf, she enjoyed bicycle riding in the US
and Europe and volunteer work including years at the Bartlett library and at
Bartlett High School fund-raisers. And she enjoyed many birthday party
adventures including a cruise to Alaska, a boat trip on the Wisconsin River
last year, and a hot air balloon ride in Napa, California. Born Alta Louise Standard on September
16, 1920 in Blue Rapids, Kansas, she was the first of four children born to William
and Esther Standard. The family moved to Bensenville, Illinois, in 1926 where
she attended elementary and high school. Louise was an honor student and active
in band, Glee Club, theatre, and the school newspaper and yearbook. After graduating from high school in
1938, Louise worked with a trucking company in Chicago.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, she moved
to Michigan to be near her future husband, Edward Lauing, where the U.S. Navy
had posted him at the Grosse Isle Naval Air Station.
Louise was employed in the claim office of
the Auto Owners Insurance Company in Wyandotte and continued to work there
while Ed began active duty on a naval supply ship touring in the Pacific, based
in Oakland, California. In January 1944, Louise received a
telegram from Ed with an unusual wartime marriage proposal: “Pack your
bags—I’ll call you tonight.” The next day, she boarded a train for the West
Coast to marry him while his ship was briefly in port. Louise and Ed were wed
in San Francisco on January 22, 1944, with First Class Petty Officer Lauing in
his dress blues and the bride wearing “an old two-piece green dress with a
black hat and a huge sweet pea corsage.” From then on, California was a special
destination and they traveled there frequently over the years. After the war Louise and Ed moved to
Lombard, Illinois where Ed began a 30-year career as a buyer with Pure Oil
(later Union Oil) in Chicago. Their son, Edward Lauing, Jr., was born in 1948,
followed by Frederick William Lauing in 1950. In 1957, they moved to Mount
Prospect, where they lived until Ed, Sr.’s death in 1979. In their leisure time
Louise and Ed were avid golfers and regularly took fishing and golfing vacations
in Door County, Wisconsin with their two boys. In 1985, Louise married Bert Crusoe, a
close family friend. Together, they moved to Bartlett, Illinois, but spent
several weeks every winter in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Bert died in 2003, and for
the next 14 years, Louise lived alone – ferociously independent and self-sufficient
until recently when she moved closer to her son in Wisconsin. Louise is survived by her sons, Fred
(Elise Moser) of Sauk City, Wisconsin and Ed (Claire) of Palo Alto, California;
her step-son, Dale Crusoe; grandchildren, Victoria Lauing, Meagan Lauing DeNeui,
Chelsea Lauing, Sarah Lauing, Ben Lauing, and Jacob Lauing: great-grandchildren,
Rowan and Graham Doyle and Owsley DeNeui; sister-in-law, Kay Mowers; niece,
Donna Mericle; and nephew, Thomas Standard. Her energy and wit are already sorely
missed. A Memorial Service is pending in Wisconsin. The
family extends special thanks to the extraordinary staff of Meadow Ridge Senior
Living in Baraboo and to Kathleen Drouin
of
Metropolitan Family Services of DuPage Co., Illinois. The Rago-Baldwin Funeral
Home, 520 East St., Baraboo, is assisting the family with arrangements.
Share On: