Oleida Rauscher

Oleida "Lee" Rauscher, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center.

She was born June 15, 1917, at Altenburg, Mo., daughter of Ludwig and Anna Lichtenegger Gerler. She first married Gerald Phelps in 1939. He died in 1964. She later married Gustav Rauscher in 1972 in St. Louis. He died in 1980.

Rauscher retired in 1976 as manager at Edison Brothers Jewelry. She was a member of Lutheran Business Women, Hanover Lutheran Church, Hanover Women's Guild, Lutheran Women's Missionary League, and KFUO Choir in St. Louis.

She had been a volunteer at Southeast Missouri Hospital and at Chateau Girardeau, and sang with the Chateau Choral Group.

Survivors include four daughters, Jean Roth of Farrar, Mo., Pauline Richter and Arlyss Schmidt of Altenburg, Kathy Steffens of Jackson; a brother, Edmund Gerler of Marquand, Mo.; nine grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by three brothers and two sisters.

Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home from 4 to 8 p.m. today.

The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home, with Vicar James Zang officiating. Entombment will be in Cape County Memorial Park Mausoleum.