Catherine Elizabeth Weber

Madison - Catherine Elizabeth Weber passed away in Madison on January 26, 2011 at the age of 97.   Catherine was born in Temvik, North Dakota, on July 29, 1913 to William and Barbara (Wagner) Foell.   She married Herbert Weber exactly 20 years later, and together they owned and operated a farm near Hazleton, North Dakota, for 45 years, raising a daughter, Renee, and a son, Robert.   Catherine was born in a time when men walked behind plows and lived to see men walking on the moon; changes that would have been hard to imagine from the sod house she lived in as a child.   She met them all with enthusiasm but never forgot her roots or her family's history.   Catherine and Herb retired from the farm and moved to Mandan, North Dakota, in 1983.   Together they traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada, visiting 48 of the 50 states.    A naturally outgoing person, Catherine made friends wherever she went and enjoyed talking with friends new and old.   She was fiercely independent and enjoyed good health for most of her 97 years.   Friends and family remember her creativity and lifelong passion for sewing, crocheting, needle work, craftwork, and painting.   She enjoyed gardening and growing house plants -- particularly African violets -- and rescued and nursed back to health many plants dropped off by her friends and neighbors.   In 2004 Catherine moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to be closer to her son, and lived there until her death.   She is preceded in death by her husband Herb, her father and mother, four brothers and one sister, her daughter Renee and her husband Leroy Gimbel.   She is survived by her son Robert (Betsy) and their children Katie (Nate Mueller), Toby and Joe; Renee's children Kathy (Rod) Mulske, Darcy Volk, and Jeff (Lisa) Gimbel; nine great-grandchildren and two great-great grand children.    A Memorial service will be held in North Dakota.   Memorials can be made to HospiceCare, Inc.