Ludwig and Ottilia (Romero) Gerken

Ludwig Theodore Herman Gerken was born on August 13, 1898, at the family homestead east of Dyersville, Iowa, the fifth of six children born to William and Carolina (Wuebbelt) Gerken. His siblings were Bill, Laura, Oscar, Thecla, and Oliva. Ludwig also had seven half-brothers and sisters, Addie, John, Frank, Henry, Leo, Rudy, and Molly, who were children of William Gerken and his first wife, Elizabeth Sudmeier, who died in 1888.

To Texas and then New Mexico.
Lud and his brother Oscar left Iowa sometime in the early thirties to go to Ranger, Texas, where they were roustabouts in the oil fields. They also lived at Amarillo. They were two of a few members of the William Gerken family to migrate from Iowa to Texas, following in the footsteps of their brother Rudolph, a Catholic priest who became the first bishop of Amarillo and later archbishop of New Mexico. After a couple years, they moved to Happy, Texas, where they had a farm. Their nephew Donald Gerken joined them in about 1935. Oscar subsequently returned to Iowa.

When the archbishop was at New Mexico, he started the Lourdes Boys School south of Albuquerque, which was combination trade school and preparatory seminary. Lud and Donald moved over there in late 1937 or 1938. Before 1940 Lud moved to Santa Fe to work for Goodrich. About the end of World War II, he opened a bicycle, lawn mower, and motorcycle service shop on Water Street in Santa Fe, just a block from the plaza and a little more than a block from the cathedral. He operated the shop until shortly before he died. He bought a house a few blocks away on Hickox.

There was a while during the war that Lud drove a city bus (really a tour bus) around Santa Fe. One day a couple got on and never got off at any of the stops. Lud was curious and asked why they rode if they weren't interested in any of the stops. They told him they just wanted to see how he got that big bus around the streets of Santa Fe.

Lud and his bottle of pills.
Lud apparently had developed leukemia while at Happy, Texas, and was instructed by a chiropractor there to eat alfalfa tabs as often as he thought about it. He was almost unable to walk at the time he got this "prescription." At any rate he had that apothecary bottle (shaped like a Vidalin bottle) with him at all times, and chewed several tabs quite regularly during the day. Who knows?

Lud inherited a number of Archbishop Gerken's personal effects when he died, among them his grandfather clock and rocking chair. Donald Gerken was supposed to get that clock, but it stayed with Tillie until she died, and it ended up with her in-laws, Senator Montaya's family. But Donald did get the rocking chair. Lud Gerken had a very nice '48 Chrysler straight eight opera coupe, with crystal drop handles for window cranks, the "Highlander" interior, in a navy blue.

Marries Tillie Romero.
Ludwig married Ottilia Romero on June 12, 1948, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Santa Fe. Ottilia "Tillie" Romero was born in 1912. Della (Romero) Montoya, wife of Senator Joseph Montoya from New Mexico, was a sister of Tillie's. Ludwig and Tillie Gerken lived in Santa Fe.

Ludwig T. Gerken dies.
Mr. Ludwig T. Gerken of Santa Fe, New Mexico, age 67, died of cancer in St. Joseph's Hospital at Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday, January 23, 1966.

The funeral was held from the Blocks Funeral Home to St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe for the 9 a.m. requiem high mass on Thursday, January 27, by the Rev. Godfry, O.S.B. Burial was in Rosario Cemetery. The casketbearers, all nephews and the sons of William Gerken, were Donald, Howard, Paul, Rudy, Mark, and Ed Gerken.

Surviving are his wife Ottilia; four brothers, Frank Gerken of Dyersville, Ia.; Henry Gerken of Dubuque, Ia.; Oscar Gerken of Guttenberg, Ia.; and William of Amarillo, Texas; four sisters, Mollie, Mrs. Ben Willenborg; Laura, Mrs. Edw. Klostermann; and Thecla, Mrs. Clem Bruggeman, all of Dyersville, Ia., and Mrs. Wm. Janssen of Umbarger, Texas.

He was preceded in death by his parents; three brothers, John of Dyersville, Ia., Archbishop Rudolph Gerken of Santa Fe, N.M., Rev. Leo Gerken of Cascade, Ia., and one sister, Adelhide, Mrs. Louis Tegeler of Nashua, Ia.

Attending the funeral from a distance were Mrs. Gerken's sister and husband, Senator and Mrs. Joe Montoya, Washington, D.C.; Mr. and Mrs. William Gerken, Howard, Mark, and Ed, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Gerken and Judy of Amarillo, Texas; Mr. and Mrs. Janssen, Umbarger, Texas; Mrs. Laura Klostermann of Dyersville, Ia.; Mr. and Mrs. Donald Gerken and Mr. and Mrs. Rudy Gerken of Albuquerque, N.M.; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gerken, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Fangmann, and Mrs. Wm. Mangerich of Phoenix, Ariz.

Ottilia "Tillie" Gerken dies.
Tillie Gerken died in 1969. She was buried in Rosario Cemetery in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.

Sources include, primarily, memories of Ludwig Gerken's grandnephew, Gerry Gerken, and his mother, Mrs. Donald Gerken, and the obituary for Ludwig Gerken from the Dyersville Commercial.

© 2000-007 Tom Larson P.O. Box 141 Peosta, IA 52068-0141 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tdlarson/gerken/william/ludwig.htm Last revised February 26, 2007.