Constance (Connie) Theresa Uhlig

Constance (Connie) Theresa Uhlig, born in Duluth on 7 October 1930, passed away peacefully with her family at her Glidden farmhouse on 30 December 2025. She was the daughter of Stanley J, and Catherine H. Burlager, nee Coda. Stanley named her after Connie Mack whose team won the World Series in 1929 & 1930. Connie was slight in build and short in stature but a giant in character and strength of will. She had to be. She was born small and sickly in a family with 9 siblings. She was unable to digest anything but cream for the first few months. Fortunately, Stanley owned a few cows and delivered milk from them to customers in town, so supply was no problem. Later she suffered pain in her legs that required several surgeries. She needed her brothers to lift her on and off the school bus as she was unable to negotiate the steps in crutches. She didn’t let these setbacks slow her down. Soon she was playing baseball and running so fast that the schoolmates were calling her Cheeta. A name she didn’t care for because she would never cheat. Not caring to cook or clean, despite later becoming a wonderful cook and baker, she found herself drawn to farm work and loved spending time in the barn or orchard and fields with her father. Growing up in rural Washburn she was devastated when the school burned down with her first pair of nylons in the locker and worried what her mom would say about her losing them. Money was so tight that the $5 a week she earned working nights at the Club Lido kitchen went to her mother first. She had a strong worry of fire after that experience, reinforced when it took the family barn and later the Glidden School. Connies’ wide-eyed innocence and childlike enthusiasm made her choice of teaching a perfect fit. She was the first of her family to graduate from college, first at County Normal and later UW Superior. Her first teaching job was a one room school teaching all eight grades in Prairie Farm, Wisconsin. After a couple of years there her mother heard of openings closer to home when the Shanagolden School consolidated with Glidden and encouraged Connie to apply. Despite loving her Prairie Farm school children she did miss her family by being so far away from home and was soon headed north to Glidden. She made many friends right off and quickly made Glidden her home. Connie taught in Glidden until her retirement in 1989 and ended up teaching children and even grandchildren of some of her prior students. In the spring of 1954, she and two of her schoolteacher friends decided to go fishing after a day of teaching. As they got to one of their favorite fishing holes a rugged strapping young man with beautiful blue eyes was coming out to the road after fishing. The indomitable Connie asked if he had caught anything and he smiled profusely while showing her his creel full of a limit of trout. She batted her eyes and asked if he would share his catch. His eyes sparkling with mischief, he replied that he, “Left her a few” in the river. Little did he know then that he had met the catch of his life, and she the catch of hers. Two years later in June of 1956 they were married under a bit of scandal in the Washburn Catholic Church. It turns out that it was a mixed marriage, Bill was Lutheran and Connie was Catholic. After getting approval from the powers that be the blessed union proceeded. The honeymoon was off to Yellowstone National Park. A place that was one of their favorites in the world and they loved to return to. Bill and Connie were inseparable and lived a life of service. Service to God, family, community and country. Connie loved God with all her heart, mind and soul. She served the Most Precious Blood parish her whole life as CCD teacher, lector, lay leader of prayer, Eucharistic Minister, secretary of the women’s sodality, making and delivering prayer shawls along with many other services. Connie was a 4-H leader for two decades, member of the VFW Auxiliary and on the scholarship committee of the retired teachers association. One of Connies’ gifts and loves in life were raising flowers and vegetables. Taking after her Grandmother Anna she took great care of her potatoes. Often there were notes left in the mailbox complimenting her on the “Garden of Eden on County Trunk N”. She raised so many wonderful vegetables that she shared generously with homebound neighbors, the local food shelf and parish priest. She loved competing in the Glidden Fair and was especially satisfied when she received a Grand Prize for potatoes or her flowers. Every Christmas Connie would make boxes of cookies that she and Bill would deliver to old single lumberjacks and shut ins. These gifts of mercy were always enthusiastically accepted and often reciprocated with a loaf of fresh bread or bottle of homemade wine. After that honeymoon to Yellowstone the travel bug got into Bill and Connie and they loved to explore and fish the world together with their family. Family trips were mostly to wild places across the American West and Canada. Later when they were retired, they traveled to Nova Scotia, Branson, MO, Europe, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii and at 80 she and Bill took a trip with Jane to visit Andy in Switzerland. At 82 Connie went with Jane to Greece and Turkey and walked in the steps of St. Paul. They also loved taking their grandchildren on fishing and camping trips across the west and Canada when summers rolled around. Connie loved fishing as much as Bill did and especially loved the times when she caught more fish than he did. She fished many states, Canada, and the Pacific from the Gulf of Alaska to Cabo San Lucas. While in Switzerland she saw some fishermen on a dock while walking the lakeshore. Language differences aside she had to know what they were using for bait and what they were catching so she ran down the dock and started asking questions. Their marriage was blessed with four children of their own, one foster daughter and dozens of young folks who were mentored while working on the farm or in the forests, lakes and streams with her. Their service to others included foreign exchange students who they shared a life long love of as their foreign sons. Andy Feitknecht from Altdorf, Switzerland and the Cano boys Alfredo, Paco and Alex from Tampico, Mexico. Connie’s light filled a great number of lives. Her love, humor and energy will be greatly missed. Connie is survived her brothers Robert and Thomas her sisters Pat and Kathy (Babe); Her children, Mary Hamilton (John) of Corcoran, MN, Paul Uhlig (Donna) of Fall Creek, WI and Jane Gustafson (Steve) of Butternut, WI, foster daughter Carolyn Waabinekwe Saari: Grandchildren, Cody, Travis & Laura Uhlig, Jenna and Will Gustafson; great grandchildren Mathew & Lilliana Uhlig and many nieces and nephews. Connie is predeceased by her spouse of nearly 69 years William Uhlig, brother James, sisters Deloras, Josephine, Mary and Ruth; Son David and Grand Daughter Deanna. A Christian funeral will be held at Most Precious Blood Church in Glidden at 11 AM, on Thursday 8 January 2026, with Reverands Aloysius Royan Anthony and Sunder Reddy Vadireddy officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior with internment in Mount Hope Cemetery to occur in the spring.

Constance (Connie) Theresa Uhlig

October 7, 1930 - December 30, 2025