Obituary: Caryl E. (Jaquish) Vigdahl - Class of 1935

TOMAH - Caryl E. Vigdahl quietly slipped away on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007, at age 90, at the Veteran's Hospital in Tomah. Caryl was born April 7, 1917, in Madison, to Jerome and Sophia (Grunert) Jaquish. Caryl attended Harvey Grade School and Madison Central High School, graduating in 1935. Caryl worked in Madison as a telephone operator for Bell Telephone Company until age 25, at which time she entered St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing under a military program during World War II. After completing nurses training, she furthered her field in public health at the University of Minnesota. She became the Public Health Nurse for Vernon County, residing in Viroqua, where she met and married M. Hartwick Vigdahl, in 1950. Caryl continued her public health nursing until the death of Hartwick in 1954. After Hartwick's death, she enlisted in the Navy Nurse Corps Reserve and was on active duty for the next 20 years. Caryl served during the Korean and Vietnam wars in Japan, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, finishing her career at the Great Lakes Naval Base. Caryl was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant commander in 1975. Caryl returned to Madison and resided in her childhood home until 1995. She then resided in two assisted living homes, Wynfield and Girlie's Manor. In 2000, Caryl entered the Tomah Veteran's Hospital, where she received loving care from the devoted staff of doctors, nurses and aides. Caryl is survived by her niece, Jackie (Bill) Wilker and their four children and their spouses, Diane and Bob Blake, Bill and Mary Beth, Joel and Shelley and Susanne and Brian Bilstad. She is further survived by seven great-grand nephews, Michael, Ryan and Kevin Wilker, Grant, Brady and Tanner Bilstad and Jordan Blake; and a great grand niece, Molly Blake. Caryl was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Hartwick; sister, Dorothy Jaquish; brother and sister-in-law, Jerome and Marion (Gilbert) Jaquish and her sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and William Musil. Graveside and military services will be held in April 2008, in Viroqua. Jackie and Bill are very grateful for the loving, special care Caryl received in her declining years of dementia.

Originally published in the Wisconsin State Journal on December 9, 2007