| Notes |
- Hazel was baptized and confirmed at the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Seymour. She grew up on her parents' farm and went to school at the rural South Osborn grade school.
Hazel helped her parents and siblings operate the farm by assisting with barn chores, milking, field work, and cooking and cleaning in the house. She was particular about whatever she did.
Hazel's first employment was at the Hotel Seymour on Main
Street, where she also roomed. There she worked in the kitchen and waited on tables. Her brother, Alfred, also was employed there at that time. Less than a year later she returned to the farm.
From there Hazel worked as a live-in-maid in Appleton and in Milwaukee. She worked for several families including the Philip Koehring family, members ofa wealthy family who owned of the Koehring Co. It was there she learned to enjoy the good things. While living in Milwaukee Hazel met William Sell, a handsome successful life insurance salesman for the Kansas City Life Insurance Company and a sharp dresser. After a whirlwind courtship they were married December 23, 1933, at the Lutheran church parsonage in Seymour by Rev. Fred Ohlrogge, Sr. They were then both 31 years old. After their wedding they made their home in Milwaukee with Hazel enjoying the nice things Bill's money could buy.
As a life insurance agent, Bill Sell often traveled out of the city and would be gone overnight. During one such trip in 1951, Bill, age 49, was found dead in his room at the Kenosha Elks Club of a self inflicted gun-shot wound. His body was cremated. Hazel and Bill did not have children.
After a lengthy period of mourning, Hazel met a fun loving dark, wavy-haired Italian named George Alexander. George was born near Virginia, MN, and worked in the iron ore mines as a young man. Following the death of his young wife in Virginia he relocated to Milwaukee, where he worked in service stations and was a skilled auto and small engine mechanic. Hazel and George were married in 1953 or 1954 and made their home in Milwaukee. Hazel, having gone back to work after Bill died, continued her employment for a shoe company and a knitting mill, doing office work. She was good with numbers.
Following her retirement, Hazel fell down the stairs in her twostory
home. She went to a nursing home to recuperate and lived there for four years. Suffering from pneumonia she died in a Milwaukee hospital on March 23, 1994. She was 91 years old. Her funeral visitation and memorial service was at the Franzen, lung and Associates Funeral Home in Milwaukee. Her interment was at the Memorial Park Cemetery in the Garden of Eternal Life crypt, Section K, No. 185B.
Soon after Hazel's death George sold the house in Milwaukee and
moved to Virginia, MN. He married a widow named Alice, who
lived in Virginia. They made their home in her house in the city.
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1902 - 1994 (91 years)
