Leslie Joanne Guthrey

"Just write, ‘She came home,’" Mom said.

 

She came home.

 

Leslie Guthrey died peacefully in memory care in West St. Paul on Friday, July 11. She was 91.

 

“I have had a beautiful life,” she said shortly before her passing.

 

She was born Leslie Joanne Tanke in La Crosse, Wis., on Nov. 18, 1933 to Myrtle Camilla Julesberg and Leslie Rudolph Tanke. It was the Great Depression: Prohibition was ending, the New Deal was beginning and a stamp cost 3 cents. Times were tough, but "Joanne" -- as she was known then -- was a beauty who made life fun with her charm and sense of fun for all, including her Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Tillman, who helped take care of her.

 

When she was 8 years old, on Dec. 7, 1941, Leslie ran inside to get some mittens and found her parents distraught as they listened to the radio: Pearl Harbor had been attacked. Her family’s life changed like everyone else’s that day. Her stepfather, Robert Beyer, joined the Army, stationed first out West before fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. During the war, Leslie moved to Seattle, where her mother worked as a nurse. While her mom served long hours, Leslie charmed the people in her downtown neighborhood, who looked out for her as she bopped around town on her own, including going to the movies, a lifelong interest of hers, following the stars from Elizabeth Taylor to Audrey Hepburn.

 

After the war, the family returned to Wisconsin, where they lived in a house that Bob built on his family's farm in Smith Coulee and she attended Smith Valley School, a one-room schoolhouse. Later, as part of the Class of 1951 at Central High School in La Crosse, Leslie sparkled on the Alumni Dance court and was known for her love of Latin and Coca-Cola. After graduating, Leslie worked as a pharmacy technician at Gundersen Clinic before marrying her high-school sweetheart, who built them an apartment above her parents’ garage. 

 

As a mom of two boys in Onalaska, Wis. in the 1960s, Leslie shared stories of her family life and her community through her work as a popular columnist and reporter for the Onalaska Record-Times under the byline of Leslie Fitting. A news junkie, Leslie followed everything from celebrities to politics to current affairs, with a special interest in first ladies like Jackie Kennedy.

 

Later on, after becoming a single mom, Leslie started a new chapter as a Lutheran pastor’s wife. She met the love of her life, John Guthrey, while he was a pastoral intern recruiting Sunday School teachers at First Lutheran in Onalaska. The pastor and the Sunday School teacher were married on July 20, 1967. After the wedding, the new family moved to North Dakota, where their third child, a daughter, was born two years later.

 

In Fargo, Leslie continued her career in pharmacy at the Fargo V.A. Medical Center and found happiness in a yellow house on First Street, where she loved gardening, reading and showcasing her rummage sale and flea market finds as well as spending time with neighbors, especially Mike and Marilyn Worner.

 

In their spare time, Leslie and her family operated a shop, The Blue House, at Shady Hollow Flea Market near Detroit Lakes, Minn. Leslie and John – “Wifey” and “Jun” to each other – were rarely apart during their 52-year marriage, enjoying time spent together eating out at local restaurants, drinking wine and going antiquing or browsing at used bookstores, or spending time at home, be it watching Wimbledon or the Kentucky Derby on TV or reading the papers and watching CNN. 

 

After John passed away in 2019, Leslie moved to West St. Paul to be closer to family. While her son managed her affairs, her daughter took care of her while they also had fun, going to Goodwill and the Dollar Tree on Robert Street, eating pizza at Carbone’s on Wentworth Avenue and making frequent appearances in the drive-through at Dairy Queen.

 

We will remember our mom every time we enjoy a glass of wine (or a gin martini with extra olives) or find a deal at a thrift store. We will miss her sense of humor, the way her eyes lit up when she saw us and all the newspaper clippings she mailed us. 

 

She will be laid to rest with her beloved husband at her family plot at Oak Grove Cemetery in La Crosse, Wis. 

 

You are home, Mom.

 

Leslie was preceded in death by her husband, John; her eldest son, Mark, and his daughter, Dana; her parents and her aunt and uncles (Carolyn and Tillman Julesberg; Orville and Norris Julesberg).

 

She is survived by her son, Matthew Fitting of Rapid City, S.D.; her daughter, Molly Guthrey of West St. Paul; seven grandchildren: Eric (and Emily) Fitting, Ross (and Margaret) Fitting, Amanda (and Ian) Young, Cassandra Fitting, Calvin, Camilla and Marigold Millett; five great-grandchildren: Amara, Kal, Spencer, Bodhi and Wynne; and by special people in her life, especially her cousin, Karen Julesberg of Madison, Wis., and friend Joan Levra of St. Germain, Wis. 

 

Thank you also to her caregivers at Walker Ridge, especially Claudia and Carol; and to Our Lady of Peace Hospice; and finally to our family friend, Rick Adams, for bringing his guitar to Mom’s bedside during her final days and singing the song he learned at her request, a favorite of hers from World War II:

 

We’ll meet again

Don’t know where

Don’t know when 

But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.

 

A memorial service will be held for Leslie and John on Tuesday, July 22 in the chapel of the Oak Grove Cemetery, located at 1407 La Crosse St. in La Crosse, Wis. Visitation will start at 11 a.m., with the service at noon and inurnment at 12:30 p.m. Guests are encouraged to wear pastel colors, which Mom loved, and join us afterward for her favorite Coney Island hot dogs at Village Shopping Center.

 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the family for a legacy bench in Detroit Lakes, one of John and Leslie’s favorite places to spend time together. 

 

Arrangements by Willwerscheid Funeral Home & Cremation Service of West St. Paul.