Lorraine “Newts” Mickow
The funeral service for Lorraine “Newts” Mickow will be at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, February 3, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Elgin with Pastor Terrill Bramstedt officiating. Burial will be in Elgin Cemetery.
Lorraine Joyce “Newts” (Kuhl) Mickow was born on December 6, 1940, in High Forest Township, Minnesota to Benedict Joseph “Ben” and Amalia Marie “Mary” (Fuerstenberg) Kuhl. The Kuhl family eventually moved to rural Spring Valley where Lorraine attended Haverhill Country School and then Spring Valley High School where she was involved in the glee club, the yearbook, chorus, the school play and the newspaper. She graduated in 1958 as a proud Wolf - Go Woofs!
Lorraine was vastly talented, performing her first piano solo on May 18, 1953, the Saturday Night Waltz, at the Enjoy Life More with Music Concert. Through 1954 and 1955, she travelled with her father and sisters, Sandra and Audrey, as the talent and award winning musical group, the Kuhl Sisters Trio. They performed live far and wide, even appearing on TV on shows like the Hemenway Talent Parade.
In 1961 she married the love of her life, LaVerne Ervin “Ernie” Mickow at Trinity Lutheran Church in Elgin, Minnesota after being set up by Lorraine’s dear sister and brother-in-law Audrey and Albert. Newts and Ernie went on to have five children, 15 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandsons, all of whom she adored and brought her the greatest joys of her life.
Lorraine spent her life as a Tupperware saleswoman, a seamstress, a baker, a realtor, a broker, and an accountant but first, foremost, and always a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother.
She spent her free time playing with her grandchildren, playing and teaching piano, reading, crocheting, creating ceramics, painting, baking, photography, and videography.
Lorraine passed away on January 29, 2020, at 4:40 a.m. at Pine Haven Care Center in Pine Island, Minnesota. She had spent nearly two weeks surrounded by the people that she loved the most, her family. She is survived by her husband, LaVerne “Ernie” Mickow of Elgin; children Pam (Brian Condon) Mickow of Rochester, Theresa (Miles Hinsch) Splittstoesser of Rochester, Kevin (Alicia) Mickow of Kasson, Joel (Shelley) Mickow of Elgin, and Shana (Courtney) Schaefer of Pine Island. She is further survived by her grandchildren Bethany (Josh) Halter, Kevin Cory Mickow, Brittany (Patrick Clipsham) Splittstoesser, Ketin Mickow, David Splittstoesser III, Julia (Mike) Klimavicz, Zachary Splittstoesser, Chamberlain (Christopher) Eisner, Abigail Splittstoesser, Devin Schaefer, Kolten (Carissa) Lukes, Kole Mickow, Savannah Mickow, Karsin Mickow, and Jade Mickow and her great-grandsons Ezekiel Frankel, D’mitri Andrade-Perez and Kai Lukes. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Audrey and her brother Charles.
Friends and family may visit from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 2, at the Schleicher Funeral Homes, Plainview Chapel, and one hour prior to the service at the church on Monday.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Pine Haven Care Center in Pine Island. Their staff and facility gave a comfort to Lorraine and her family that could never adequately be expressed.
Arrangements entrusted to Schleicher Funeral Homes, Plainview Chapel, the guest register may be signed at www.schleicherfuneralhomes.com
