Virginia Kohlhorst Witte, wife of Oliver Witte Sr., former owner and publisher of newspapers in Mauston, Elroy and Kendall, Wis., died Tuesday, June 26, in Wheaton, Ill. She was 98.

A memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday, July 7, in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1195 Kuhn Road, Carol Stream, Ill. Hultgren Funeral Home (www.hultgrenfh.com) is handling arrangements. Burial will be in El Camino Memorial Park, San Diego. A graveside memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. Saturday, July 14.

The Wittes owned the Mauston Star and Juneau County Chronicle from 1951 to 1962, when they sold them to Larry Arnold and Ken Bogert of New Lisbon.

The Wittes continued to live in Mauston, publishing a newsletter, Wisconsin County Lands, until moving to San Diego in 1976. Oliver Sr. died less than a month before their 50th wedding anniversary.

Mrs. Witte, who was born and raised in Denver, came to Kendall in 1934 to be married on June 22 by her father-in-law, the late Rev. Louis A. Witte, pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church in Kendall. It was the bottom of the Great Depression. Oliver Sr. had acquired the Kendall Keystone in 1933 after the bank foreclosed on the previous owner. Mrs. Witte worked in the printing shop until she became too pregnant to reach the letters of type in the cases in which they were kept. She also edited and managed the Elroy and Kendall newspapers between Jan. 1 and May 1, 1951, when they were sold to Phil and Ruth Egan of St. Paul, Minn.

Her proudest accomplishments were founding the Mauston Women's Club and leading a successful fund-raising campaign to buy a motorized wheel chair for Mary Podrasky, the newspapers' Lyndon Station correspondent. The campaign was conducted through Mrs. Witte's newspaper column, Listening In. She also thrilled to her ride on President Harry S Truman's train between Winona and Elroy when he was campaigning for re-election in 1948. Those were the days when Elroy was a major hub for two railroads.
Mrs. Witte had been living with her son, Oliver Jr., and his family in Wheaton for the past 15 years.

Survivors include her son, Oliver, of Wheaton; his wife, Priscilla; a granddaughter, Rachel French, of Tampa, Fla.; two grandsons, Paul, of Chicago, and Eric, of Wheaton; a sister-in-law, Mrs. Ruth Bargren, of Rockford, Ill.; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Oliver, on May 29, 1984, and two sisters.

In lieu of flowers, send memorials to the DuPage Convalescent Center, 400 N. County Farm Road, Wheaton, IL 60187.