LOUETTE D. BARTOL (1935 – 2022)
Louette D. Bartol of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, died at home on Saturday, June 25, following a
decade-long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Born Louette Evangelyn Danner to the Reverend and Mrs. Louis F. Danner in Rockford, Illinois,
on July 22, 1935, she spent her childhood in a series of Lutheran parsonages in Loves Park,
Illinois; St. Joseph, Michigan; Everett, Massachusetts; and Brattleboro, Vermont, before
graduating from Brattleboro High School in 1952. After two years at Keene Teachers College
(now Keene State College), in Keene, New Hampshire, she transferred to Augustana College in
Rock Island, Illinois, graduating in 1956 with a major in Classical Studies and minors in English
and Education. Louette went on to earn a Master of Arts in Teaching at Northern Michigan
College (now Northern Michigan University) in 1961.
By then she was several years into what would become a four-decade career in high school
teaching, beginning at Mather High School, in Munising, Michigan, from 1956 to 1959. It was
while teaching in Munising that she met and married Donald L. Bartol, a fellow Mather High
teacher, on August 14, 1959. The couple first settled in Iron River, Michigan, where Louette
taught for a year at Iron River High School, before her husband’s career took them to Marshall,
Michigan, and then to Normal, Illinois, where she taught for three years at Normal Community
High School.
In 1966 Louette moved to Sun Prairie with her husband and family, which by then included three
sons. She taught English and Latin at Sun Prairie High School from 1967 until her retirement in
1997, serving as chair of the English Department and advisor to the National Honor Society and
to the Latin Club for several of those years. In 1984 she participated in a Visiting Teacher
program in the United Kingdom, teaching English for several weeks at Liskeard School in
Liskeard, Cornwall, England. England was a recurrent destination for trips abroad both while
teaching and after her retirement. Attending a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar
at Simmons College, in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1995, on the Literature of the Holocaust, was
one of several professional development opportunities rooted in various personal passions.
Another of Louette’s passions was music. As a young adult she played the organ at churches in
Brattleboro and Munising, and after moving to Sun Prairie she served as organist at Peace
Evangelical Lutheran Church for nineteen years. She was also a devoted fan of the Spanish tenor
José Carreras. But her greatest passion was for classroom teaching and for inspiring her students,
be it in the reading of American and English literature, the writing of clear and concise essays, or
the pursuit of proper English usage and good grammar. The latter, in particular, carried on well
into her final years, as her home health aides occasionally found themselves being schooled in
the difference between “lie” and “lay.”
Louette was preceded in death by her parents and by her husband. She is survived by her sister,
Marcette K. Danner, of Oakland, Maryland; by sons Frederick Bartol of Sun Prairie, Laurence
(Cindy) Bartol of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Stopher (Sheryl) Bartol of Evanston, Illinois; by
grandchildren Julia, Ben, Andrew, Sara, and Sophie; and by a mischievous giant purple panda
named Winston. A private family graveside service will be followed by a memorial visitation on
Thursday, June 30, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Tuschen-Newcomer Funeral Home, 302 Columbus Street,
Sun Prairie, at which those who knew Louette are invited to gather to remember and celebrate a
remarkable life in the classroom and beyond.
The family wishes to thank Agrace HospiceCare for the care it provided Louette in her final
months. In lieu of flowers, the family invites memorial donations to Agrace, the Alzheimer’s
Association, or a charity of your choice.