Hildegard Gstattenbauer

Hildegard Gstattenbauer was called home to our Lord early Saturday morning, May 14, 2016, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. Visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 19, 2016, at Grace Gardens Funeral Home. A Funeral service will be 2:00 p.m. Friday May 20, 2016, at St. Matthew Lutheran Church with Pastor Paul Krupicka officiating.

Hildegard was born October 21, 1935, in small hamlet of Schid Banovski, in what is now know as the country of Croatia, the daughter of the late Karl and Maria ( Grumbach) Blum. As a child, she spent many a day as the village goose girl, keeping watch over the village flocks. As the second World War drew to a close and the Red Army advanced into the Balkans, she, her mother and two brothers along with many thousands of ethnic Germans were forced to walk over five hundred miles returning to Germany where her ancestors had fled over 100 years earlier. As refugees, they were resettled in Austria on the German Bavarian border. She was not reunited with her father until 1950, when he escaped from a communist prisoner of war camp and walked barefoot to Hochburg/Ach, Austria where his family awaited. It was in Hochburg where she met the Love of her life, Alfred Gstattenbauer at the small farmstead where they both worked. On October 1, 1955, they married in Simbach/Inn, Germany and their first son Werner was born in 1955. In 1956, she, Alfred and Werner packed all they had into three bags and immigrated to the USA where they settled in New York City and the first American Gstattenbauer, Betty was born in 1957. Working days and nights, she and Alfred managed the American dream and purchased a home in rural New Jersey where they were blessed with their third child, Freddy in 1961. In 1975, she, Alfred and Freddy moved again to Waco, Texas where Alfred helped open the new M&M Plant.

Hilde, as she was affectionally called, had a lifelong passion for cooking, sewing and was deeply artistic. As a seamstress, she sewed everything from doll dresses to her son’s tuxedo. In Waco, she became a highly sought after wedding cake baker. Her creations were considered works of art. She also gardened, painted and created beautiful art pieces out of stained glass.

Hilde, known to by “Omi” to those that loved her, is survived by and deeply missed by her husband Alfred for over sixty years; her three children, Werner and his wife Pamela, Betty and her husband Roger, Fred and his wife Jeannie; a brother, Paul Blum; six grandchildren, Christopher and wife Jennifer, Gregory and his wife Megan, Melissa and her husband Matt, Roger and his wife Christie, Jarrod and Cassidy; ten great grandchildren James, Grant, Calvin, Andrew, Austin Gstattenbauer, Kennedy, Leila, Evan Hogan, Felix and soon to be Isadora Fornelius.

For those desiring, the family has suggested the Heart of Texas Parkinson’s Group, 2001 N. Valley Mills, Dr. Waco, Texas 76707, for memorial contributions.