Josef Zender

Amy Windler thought that this person is Lu Zender's cousin...

Zender, Josef found on obit central .com 9/15/11 b. 7-05-1897 d. 1-08-1999

(date of birth determined from this info) cut n paste below

Funeral Mass for centenarian Josef Zender, of Litchfield, will be said at 11 a.m. tuesday in the chapel at St. Francis Hospital, where he had been a resident for the past several years. The Rev. Father Ted Schelich will officiate. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery in Evergreen Park. Plummer Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. No visitation is planned. Mr. Zender died at 4:10 p.m. Friday, January 8, 1999, in St. Francis Hospital. He was 101 years old on July 5. He was born in Duisburg, Germany, a son of Peter and Maria Schmitt Zender. A veteran of World War I, he served in the German Army, was wounded and taken prisoner by the English in France. He came to the United States in 1925 and became a citizen in 1930. Working his way through night school, he became a drafting and design engineer for the Inland Steel Company in Chicago. He worked for the company for many years until his retirement. He came to Litchfield in September 1990. Survivors include a niece, Sister Hugh Holtmann, O.S.F., of Belleville, formerly of Litchfield and formerly administrator of St. Francis Hospital. Other nieces and nephews surviving in Germany and the United States. Preceding him in death were brothers, Johann, Mathias, Peter, Jakob, Karl and Heinrich Zender and a sister, Gertrude Holtmann. Funeral Mass for Josef Zender, of Litchfield, formerly of Chicago, was held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the chapel at St. Francis Hospital. The Rev. Father Ted Schelich and the Rev. Father John Sheahan officiated. Sister Leola Brown was the lector. Eucharistic minister was Sister Mary Flynn. Organist was Sister Barbara Mary Lanham. Musical selections for the Mass were "Alleluia! Alleluia!," "Soul of My Savior," and "May Saints and Angels Lead You On." Burial was in St. Mary's Cemetery in Evergreen Park. Plummer Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. Mr. Zender, 101, died Friday, January 8, in St. Francis Hospital.

So Litchfield has a St Francis hospital but he is buried up here in Evergreen Park