Carole F. Edland

Carole enjoyed playing in the band and formed an all girl orchestra when she was a sophomore. After much rehearsal, they actually played for some weddings for money! After graduating from Antigo High School she went to and graduated from St. Mary’s School of Nursing, Wausau, Wisconsin in 1953. She was nurse to many patients that came to St. Mary’s Isolation Hospital during the polio epidemic in 1952.

After graduation she moved to Madison to attend UW Madison. She met her future husband, third year medical student Robert Edland and married him on September 17, 1955 in Antigo, Wisconsin. Carole was instrumental in starting the third Robert B. Green School of Nursing in San Antonio. They then were transferred to Augsburg, Germany where Carole taught religious education, was president of the church women’s club and directed the church choir. Needless to say, she had to work 6 months ahead of each liturgical season. While stationed in Germany they applied to adopt a child and were able to adopt their first child Christopher Patrick Edland at the age of 13 months. They found La Crosse to be a wonderful city to raise a family. When her last child went to first grade Carole completed an art major and music minor at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministries at St. Mary’s University in 1994 and a Doctor of Ministry at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN in 1998.

During the past forty years, she has been a choir director at Blessed Sacrament Parish and St. James The Less, as well as a religious education teacher and RCIA coordinator at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman since 1992, Church Women’s club president at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Commissioned Lay Minister and Leader of Prayer for the Diocese of La Crosse, Lector, Eucharistic Minister at Cathedral Parish, Chaplain for the Country Jail Ministry and Eucharistic Minister at the Mayo Health Center, FSH.

She was a published poet and the author of a book called “Devyn Has Cancer: A Tale of Two Angels”, which was written and illustrated with her granddaughter Devyn before Devyn died of neuroblastoma in 2002.

She had an art gallery called the Edland Art Gallery where she displayed her art as well as many local artists. She taught art classes to adults and sometimes to children. She earned a major in art from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse and specialized in watercolors, acrylics and pottery. They have four grown married children and seven grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her father, Bernard McGinley, her mother Albie McGinley, sister Ellen Dowd, Devyn Doughty, and many grandparents and other relatives.

A Funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 AM Monday, August 5, 2013, in the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman, 530 Main St., La Crosse, Wis. Msgr. Charles Stoetzel will officiate with entombment to be held in the St. Francis of Assisi Mausoleum, in the Catholic Cemetery, La Crosse, Wis. Family and friends may call from 4 to 7:00 PM at the Blaschke & Schneider Funeral Home, 1501 West Ave. So., on Sunday with a Rosary to be held at 4:00 PM. Family and friends may also call from 9:30 AM until the time of Mass in the Cathedral on Monday. Memorials may be made out to The Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman, the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, or the choice of the donor in Carole’s memory.