Kathleen Ann Huebner

Kathleen Ann "Kathy" Huebner (née Freitag) lived a life deeply rooted in the industrial city of Waukesha, Wisconsin, where she was born on May 11, 1944, and remained until her death on March 30, 2026, at the age of 81. Born to Harlow Julius Freitag and Serena Annabell (Kennedy) Freitag, Kathleen was the second of eleven children in a large, working-class Catholic family with strong community ties.

Kathleen's parents had married on June 15, 1940, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Waukesha, establishing the religious foundation that would anchor their family's life. Her mother, Serena, was born in 1918 in Marblehead, Wisconsin, to Joseph and Mary (Czajkowski) Kennedy, representing the third generation of an ethnic Catholic community in Wisconsin. Serena graduated from St. Joseph Grade School and Waukesha High School in 1937 before devoting herself to raising twelve children and later working at Avalon Manor for fifteen years.

Growing up in post-war Waukesha during the 1950s, Kathleen experienced the prosperity of America's manufacturing boom. As one of the older children in her large family, she likely assumed significant responsibilities helping care for her younger siblings. The family's religious life centered on St. Joseph Catholic Church, which had been established in 1842 and whose Greek Revival and Late Victorian church building, completed in 1888, was a cornerstone of Waukesha's Catholic community.

At the age of nineteen, Kathleen married Frederic M. Huebner, Sr., in 1963, beginning a union that would last 63 years until his death. The couple had two children: a son, Frederic "Freddy" M. Huebner, Jr., and a daughter, Nikki, who later married Rich Reed. Their family expanded to include three grandchildren: Isabelle, who married Zach Earhart; Jasmine, who married Matt Niquette in a Milwaukee ceremony on June 17, 2023; and Gregory Harvey.

Kathleen's working life spanned several decades in Wisconsin's manufacturing sector. She initially worked at Amron, a defense contractor in Antigo, Wisconsin, that has been producing ammunition cartridge cases for the U.S. Department of Defense since 1954. She also worked at Hankscraft, a company that evolved from an appliance manufacturer founded in 1949 to a multi-division contract manufacturing company. However, her primary career was with Waukesha Rubber Company, where she worked for 35 years before retiring.

Her three-and-a-half-decade tenure at Waukesha Rubber Company placed her within Wisconsin's significant rubber manufacturing industry, which had deep historical roots dating back to the early 1900s. This sustained employment provided the economic foundation for her family's middle-class stability during the height of American manufacturing prosperity from the post-war period through the 1970s and beyond.

Beyond work and family, Kathleen maintained active community involvement throughout her life. She was a lifelong member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, continuing the religious tradition established by her parents. Alongside her husband, she was also a member of the Eagles Auxiliary Club, part of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, an organization founded in 1898 with the motto "Liberty, Truth, Justice and Equality." The Ladies' Auxiliary provided women members with equal rights and privileges, fostering community engagement and supporting local charities.

Kathleen's extended family remained central to her life throughout her years. She was preceded in death by her parents, her older sister Judy, and her husband Frederic. At the time of her death, she was survived by ten siblings: Michael Freitag, Nancy Freitag-Singer, "Inchy" Mary (Dale) Baldowsky, Dottie McCann, Chris "Rickie" (Jose) Hiracheta, Debbie (Eric) DeShong, Joni Heiden, Tim (Marianne) Freitag, Ann (Richard) Braatz, and Todd Freitag. Her brother Tim pursued music in St. Charles, Missouri, while Todd relocated to Tampa, Florida, where he maintained business interests.

In her final days, Kathleen demonstrated the values that had guided her throughout her life. According to her obituary, she inquired about the welfare of her "nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews too numerous to mention," showing her continued devotion to family relationships even as her own life drew to a close. This final gesture epitomized a woman whose life was characterized by stability, family commitment, and deep community roots.

Kathleen Huebner's funeral arrangements were handled by Church & Chapel Funeral Home in Waukesha/Pewaukee, a family-owned business that has served the community since 1991. True to her modest nature, there was no formal funeral service, though a celebration of her life was planned for a later date. Her passing marked the end of a life that, while not marked by extraordinary public achievement, exemplified the quiet contributions of countless American working women whose steady labor, family devotion, and community engagement built and maintained the social fabric of their communities throughout the transformative decades of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.