Henrietta Fosnot, Sauk City, WI

Born Feb. 27, 1931

Died Sept. 17, 2025

Overcoming the challenges of her younger years, Henrietta forged her own path to become the strong, fiercely independent woman who lived in her own home until her death at age 94.

A child of the Depression, she was born Henrietta Diantha Adams to Manuel and Thelma Adams in Excelsior. Her first job was helping take care of her five younger siblings, clean house and live up to her mother's motto: "We may be poor, but we don't have to be dirty!"

Married at 16, she was part of the package when her husband, Glen Lettman, got work on a farm. Even while pregnant, she pumped and hauled water to the barn, cooked for the farmhands and fed her own family with what she'd canned from the garden after learning they wouldn't get paid all winter. They lived in and around Blue River, Viroqua, Excelsior and Lone Rock.

The thing she was most proud of was going back to high school at age 30.  Not for a GED. She actually attended classes at Blue River High School and earned her diploma, with her three boys sitting in the front row at graduation. That enabled her to get a job, buy a car, learn to drive and eventually buy her own trailer home – her leap to independence.

She worked as a bookkeeper, first at a feed mill. When that closed, Pillsbury offered her a job in Minneapolis. It would have been a big step for her, maybe turned into a career. But as a single mother at that point, she thought it best to raise her sons in rural Wisconsin – clearly the right decision, because that's where they all stayed and raised their own families.

She moved to Dayton when she got a job at a small manufacturer in nearby Belleville. She found the office a mess and gleefully ordered filing cabinets and boxes and organized the whole place. It was in Dayton where a friend introduced her to James Fosnot, a Dane County patrolman. It must've been love at first sight, because she uncharacteristically called into work sick the next day and went on a date with him to the horse track in Illinois. They soon married and bought an 80-acre farm in Roxbury Township.

Henrietta had five children in all, unfortunately outliving two of her sons. She instilled in us discipline, frugality, a solid work ethic and the determination to do the job right the first time. She was especially passionate about making sure her sons could cook and clean, so they never had to rely on a woman, and making sure her daughters got an education, so they never had to rely on a man. She got her wish on all counts.

After being widowed at age 57, she found a freedom she'd never had before. She dated. She traveled. She was exposed to beautiful new things: art galleries, concerts, the opera. She was delighted to meet these people called "foodies" that she'd never heard of.

She also built a house in Sauk City, painstakingly choosing every detail. One thing she made sure of: lots of closets. Having only two dresses and one pair of shoes as a young child, she reveled in dressing up. Those closets were packed with her garage-sale and thrift-shop finds – hundreds of outfits, shoes, purses and earrings. The rest of the house was filled with all manner of collections and treasures, mostly bought on her weekly jaunts to St. Vincent's. In her later years, she called that house her "whole world."

Henrietta is survived by two sisters, a son, two daughters, two daughters-in-law, a son-in-law and his two kids, nine grandkids, 13 great-grandkids, and 13 nieces and nephews plus their kids.

The family thanks all the people who supported her through her final chapter: the neighbors who were nothing short of guardians, the Aging and Disability Resource Center staffers who went on a legal and bureaucratic marathon with us, the IRIS program, the wizard of a scheduler at BrightStar Care, Henrietta's BrightStar friends who visited twice a day, a special young woman who filled in at a moment's notice, and of course, everyone who made a banana run!

Deep appreciation goes to the hospital and Maplewood social workers for their compassionate ingenuity and to the nurses and aides at St. Croix Hospice, who finally brought her comfort.

Services are being held Sept. 24 in Sauk City.