Edward John
Klein
- Visitation
- Friday, November 13th from 10am – 12pm at Heritage Funeral Home, 9200 S. 27th St., Oak Creek, WI.
Obituary written by Edward’s nephew/guardian John Grubor:
Born November 27th, 1937 and passed away on November 5th, 2020. Edward was in good health up until about 5-6 years ago, then Parkinson’s Disease hit him along with dementia, which became very advanced towards the end. He finally contracted Covid-19 5-6 days prior to his death which was ultimately the cause of his passing. I keep thinking I wish my wife and I could have cared for him and had him live with us but with his advanced state of dementia it would have been impossible for us to do that. His dementia was so bad the last couple months that he literally forgot how to walk and was falling down all the time. I was getting 4-5 calls a week from the nursing home stating he had fallen down. When I finally got the call that he had passed away I was actually happy, he was a devout Roman Catholic his whole life, who attended Mass at Gesu Church in Downtown Milwaukee regularly and who firmly believed that Jesus Christ was his Savior. He is in a lot better place.
Edward was preceded in death by his parents Edward Sr. and Maxine Klein, his sister Mary Franszczak, his aunt Marcella Scholten and his nephew Paul Grubor. He is survived by myself, my wife Alice along with nephews George Grubor, Raymond Berlin, and his wife Maureen, Peter Berlin and his wife Donna and nieces Rosemary Esser, Mary Ellen Levra and her husband Mark and Laura Schram and her husband Bob along with other relatives and friends.
Edward is also survived by his close friend Walter Wach, whom he met while going to college at Marquette and who visited him numerous times before the virus situation hit and no one was allowed to visit him.
Edward’s main hobby growing up in his 30’s and 40’s was playing handball. He was an accomplished player and participated in hundreds of competitive matches and tournaments all over the state. He would often complain in his later years that playing handball all those years ruined his knees.
Edward was also a very good card player, especially 500 and Sheepshead.
Edward also enjoyed watching old movies, he had a collection of approximately 250 DVD’s and particularly liked Sherlock Holmes, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chan and any mystery/espionage movie. He also enjoyed watching old western movies, especially ones where Randolph Scott was the main actor.
Edward was an individual whom I always looked up to, I lived with my Grandma for 3-4 years in my teenage years and we spent countless hours playing 1 x 1 basketball, HORSE, chess and our favorite All Star Baseball game. I thought I was good in all four of these but he would routinely beat me. He despised losing.
Edward also loved sports, especially back in the 1950’s and 1960’s. His three favorite teams were always the Milwaukee Braves from the late 1950’s, the Boston Celtics from the 1960’s and the Green Bay Packers from the 1960’s. His favorite sports people were always Eddie Mathews, Lou Burdette, Bill Russell, Red Auerbach, Vince Lombardi, and Bart Starr. One of Edward’s prized possessions was a personalized autographed baseball his mother had signed by Lou Burdette, who was a pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves and was the 1957 World Series MVP, his mother Maxine actually went to Mr. Burdette’s house and got the baseball signed by him. Mr. Burdette lived right down the street from them on South 58th Street in West Allis when Edward was in his late teens. Players back then made $20,000-$30,000 per year and often times lived in regular neighborhoods and not in some gated community.
Edward was a school teacher in the West Bend School District back in the late 60’s and early 70’s before being hired by the US Government as a security guard. He worked for the US Government in security for approximately 25 years, starting off in Detroit, then being transferred to Chicago and ultimately Milwaukee. The main building where he physically worked was the Federal Building at 517 E. Wisconsin Ave in downtown Milwaukee. Here his main duty was to man the scanning devices when people walked into the building as well as being in court rooms to make sure nothing broke out. He also traveled the state as part of his job giving seminars to various federal employees as it pertains to security for themselves as well as the security of the federal buildings they were working at and protecting.
After retiring from the government in the mid 1990’s, he moved back to the house his mother lived in on South 94th Street and cared for her for a good number of years before she got worse and had to be put in a nursing home. The whole family will forever be grateful to Edward for sacrificing many years of his life to do this for his mother.
In Conclusion, Edward was a good man and I have no doubt he is in Heaven right now looking down on us, he taught me a lot, he will be sorely missed.
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