Emilie J. Novotny, age 106, passed away peacefully on Dec. 27, 2024 in Middleton at Brookdale Senior Living.  She was born in Prairie du Sac on June 17, 1918 to the late Joseph and Anna (Ruml) Novotny.  She joined her older sister Ann Marcella.  At an early age their father passed.  Anna married Frank Vielhuber and four siblings soon joined the active farm life outside of Leland, Frank, Mary, Tony, and Helen.  Emilie and siblings walked the 2 miles to Little Prairie School.  In winter the horse would be hitched to the sled, with warmed bricks at their feet, away they would go.  At Little Prairie School many lifelong friendships would form with the Sprecher, Schneller and Oschner classmates and families.  Emilie and Ann boarded a room in Sauk City to attend and graduate from Sauk City High School; Emilie graduated on June 4, 1937.

Emilie would begin her career at the University of Wisconsin that lasted 42 years.  She meticulously worked under the Professor of the Anatomy Department.  With a manual typewriter, landline telephone and carbon paper she completed tasks for Dr. Mortimer and Medical Students attending classes at the UW Medical School.

Her life was filled with dancing two to three times a week at Turner Hall in Madison.  She loved listening to music, watching the Lawrence Welk show, gardening and cooking, crocheting and sewing, and painting.  Emilie and sisters, Ann and Helen were blessed with their mothers' baking skills.  Anna was a student at a Vienna pastry school before immigrating from Czechoslovakia as a young girl.  English was not a primary language when the children grew up, both Ann and Emilie attended Little Prairie speaking only German.  Throughout Emilie's life she practiced and self-taught herself naturopathy and ecotherapy.  Her belief was that your body has self-healing capabilities with eating well, being in and around nature and with meditation and prayer.

In addition, Emilie was dedicated to caring for her mother.  Emilie was deeply family oriented and will be remembered for her generosity and her selflessness.  She sacrificed her own time and comfort for the care of her mother.  Together they built a home on University Avenue in Middleton.  Her love of the outdoors was evident in her affection for flowers, gardens and watching and listening to the birds.  Creating beautiful flower beds that she enjoyed as well as her neighbors, often sharing bouquets of flowers with them.  Her garden was the envy of the neighborhood; mulberry bushes, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb and asparagus plants.  She asked her niece to dig up nettles from the farm and replant them on University Ave.  She harvested the young leaves, cooked and ate the nutritious pot herb.  Emilie also planted a linden tree and harvested the blossoms for therapeutic tea.  She enjoyed sharing cuttings of her pussy willow tree bringing the first signs of spring indoors when we might still be looking at snow outside our windows.

As a young girl she would build houses for her feathered friends in a wood shed at her homestead.  This city girl never forgot her country roots.  She and her mom made regular trips to Floyd and Ann' farm to help with farm life.  Picking apples, harvesting garden produce and helping to prepare large meals for the thresherees.  The highlight was spoiling "the twins", Jerry and Jane and older brother, James.

Emilie loved her nieces, and nephews.  Ann's children; James A. Leister of Monona, Jerry A. Leister and Jane A. Kohlman, Prairie du Sac and Middleton; Franks children, Stanley, Dean, Mark and Sharon Vielhuber located in the Evansville area; Tony's children, Richard (Dianne) Vielhuber of Reedsburg, Judy Licht of North Freedom and Linda Vielhuber of Lacrosse; Helen's children, Bob, Bill Norman and John Beardsley; daughters, Barbara, Bettelou, Bonnie and Brenda.  Emilie is further survived by her loving sister, Helen Beardsley of Crystal River, Florida and a special friend, Peggy Bongard Ganser.

Her retirement was filled with a never-ending quest to study history.  Spending countless hours at libraries, joining the Sauk Prairie Historical Society and walking through local cemeteries studying genealogy of the Sauk Prairie, Sumpter and Blackhawk areas.  At age 92 she purchased a piano and was teaching herself to play.  She presently was enrolled in a program for Boston University for a demographic study.

For the last seven years, Emilie lived at Brookdale Senior Living in Middleton.  She enjoyed the companionship of family and friends.  This past spring she was voted prom queen, enjoyed dancing the Tennessee Waltz and singing How Great Thou Art.  Many of these favorite pastimes she performed for TV stations televised birthday parties as she celebrated her birthdays of 100 through 106.  Emilie was a daily reader of the newspaper up until a week before her passing.  She had a deep devotion for God and a life long member of the First United Church of Christ, Sauk City.

Ann and Emilie were confirmed on Easter Sunday, April 16, 1933.  A bright light had gone out of our family.  Greeting her are family members who preceded her in death, her parents; older sister Ann; brother in-law, Floyd Leister; niece Gloria; her brother Frank; sister in-law, Rita; and nephew, Steven; an infant sister, Mary taken far too soon at age 2; brother Tony; sister in-law, Ersel; great nephew, Nate; brother in-law, Robert Beardsley and nephew, David.

A Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 am on Tuesday, Jan. 7th, 2025 at First United Church of Christ, 504 Washington St., Sauk City.  A visitation will be held one hour prior to service.  Interment will follow in the Sauk City Cemetery.

Memorials may be made in Emilie's name to the Sauk Prairie Historical Society.

Emilie's family would like to thank the Brookdale Staff for their excellent care, where everyone is treated like family and also to Agrace Hospice, Lynette and Jody for their care.

To my aunt Mill-you are an inspiration to me-your Janey girl.

Online condolences may be made at hooversonfuneralhomes.com