It is with great sadness that the family of Delores “Dee” Marie Sheahan, 73, Whitewater, announce her passing. She departed her loving family on February 11, 2023. She was born on March 27, 1949 to Roy and Ina (Larson) Sandvigen. She spent her childhood in La Crosse, WI and would eventually make her home and raise her family in Wilton, WI. Shortly after her husband, David, passed on December 27, 2007, she relocated to Whitewater, WI to be closer to her family.
She dedicated her life to her family and her love was unconditional. Her family meant everything to her and she to them. She was caring, supportive, and loving. Her heart was compassionate, pure and forgiving. She loved unconditionally and was the best mother and grandmother anyone could wish for. The void she leaves behind is immense and she will be missed forever.
She is survived by her children, Molly (Nate) Parrish, Whitewater, and Bridget Sheahan, Elroy, WI; grandchildren, Stephanie, Kayla, Bryce, Hunter, Maci, and Kelseigh; great-grandchild, Ellie Mae; sister, Karen Ahmad, Henderson, NV; Son in law Don Sadewater, Belvidere, IL and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; two brothers, LeRoy and Ronnie; step-daughter, Shelly Sadewater and nephew, Omar Ahmad.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at Nitardy Funeral Home 550 N. Newcomb St. Whitewater, WI 53190. Friends may call at the funeral home on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until the time of the service. Online condolences may be made at www.nitardyfuneralhome.com.
By Lynn Binnie Whitewater Banner volunteer staff whitewaterbanner@gmail.com
According to the 511 Wisconsin Construction Projects website of the WI Department of Transportation (DOT), a major construction project that begins on March 6 will be closing the route to Fort Atkinson that is routinely taken by many area residents. The affected area, extending nearly four miles on US Hwy 12, begins at Buckingham Road (which is across Hwy 12 and just south of Twinkling Star Road, where Binggs Restaurant is located) and continues north to County (Cty) M (where Baker Glass is located). DOT states, “Reconstruction will include removing and replacing the existing pavement, base course layer, sub-base course layer, pavement marking, and permanent signing. Other improvements will include widening the shoulders and safety zone, modifying three substandard horizontal curves to meet current design standards, and replacing drainage structures.” Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Although DOT indicates that the project starts “just north of the Whitewater bypass,” an approximate two mile segment from Business Highway 12 (Main Street) to Buckingham was reconstructed several years ago, and presumably is not included in this year’s project. Although an inconvenience, many drivers will likely be pleased to see the remainder of the rural section repaved, as it has been notoriously difficult to navigate during rain, with ruts that can contribute to hydroplaning.
DOT indicates that the detour will be Highways 59 and 26, which is a result of their policy that calls for detours to be routed over state highways. Most Whitewater area residents, however, will likely prefer taking Cty N (from Tratt Street) north to State Hwy 106 and west into Fort Atkinson. Alternatively one could reach Hwy 12 from Cty N by traveling west on Cty M.
A meeting with more information about construction impacts is scheduled for March 1 at 5 p.m. at the Town of Koshkonong Town Hall, W5609 Star School Road.
Editor’s Note: The following was provided by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
This 3 session workshop focuses on how you may prepare for a comfortable retirement. This course introduces you to concepts and strategies that may help you handle your day-to-day finances, potentially reduce your taxes and manage your investments. What’s more, it will discuss how you can assess your current financial situation and develop a personalized plan that may help you pursue your retirement goals.
Teaching format will be an entertaining and informative educational course developed by CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ , Certified Retirement Counselor® and Accredited Asset Management SpecialistSM professionals with many years of real-world experience. The presenters teach the material in a way that is easy to understand, using real-life examples that may be applied to your situation. The course is presented in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere where your participation and questions are encouraged! This class is designed for adults close to retirement.
Three Wednesday Sessions | 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. CST
Finance 101 | March 1, 2023
Social Security & Investments | March 8, 2023
Medicare, Insurance, & Estate Planning | March 15, 2023
Optional Lab: Complimentary one on one consultation with one of the instructors to apply class concepts to your own personal situation.
Limited to the first 40 registrants or couples sharing a workbook.
Fee – $119 per person or couple sharing a workbook
Included in the Fee: The event fee includes workbook, one instructor consultation, and instruction.
Your online registration and payment are always safe and secure. We accept MasterCard and Visa credit card payments in our online registration system. We will NOT accept credit card payments over the phone. We will accept checks made out to “UW-Whitewater” and mailed to UW-Whitewater Camps and Conferences, 800 West Main Street, Room 2005 Roseman Hall, Whitewater WI 53190.
Confirmation Emails Once you register to attend an event (including waitlisted), a confirmation email will be sent to your email account. Contact cesevents@uww.edu if you do not receive this confirmation email. You must have a working email address on file with us to be able to receive important announcements and updates about this event.
The National Weather Service Milwaukee/Sullivan Office is predicting that the Whitewater area will receive 5-8″ of snow on Thursday, with travel impacts potentially significant in the afternoon. Northerly winds gusting 30 to 40 mph are expected. Blowing and drifting snow likely once accumulations start.
According to a press release, “Whitewater Unified School District will be closed on Thursday, February 16, 2023 due to predictions of snow and strong winds that will make travel for our students and staff dangerous, throughout the day Thursday. All after-school activities for Thursday are also canceled.”
The Whitewater Historical Society will present a program featuring Native American artifacts from the collection of Bernie Kleiber of rural Whitewater on Sunday, February 19, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Cravath Lakefront Community Building. The Cravath Lakefront Community Building is on Whitewater Street behind Me and My Pets (147 Whitewater Street) with access off the street through the historic arch.
Bernie Kleiber has owned farmland for many years and has a large collection of Native American arrowheads, spear points, tools, etc. Kleiber has researched these artifacts and has dated them from various pre-historic periods in this area of Wisconsin. Kleiber will share some of his collection and his knowledge of these artifacts in this upcoming program.
The general public is welcome at this program. For more information, contact Carol Cartwright of the Whitewater Historical Society, 262-473-6820.
Editor’s note: The arrowheads shown on the homepage are not from Bernie Kleiber’s collection.
One hundred and sixteen students from schools in the Rock Valley Conference performed in the annual Rock Valley Conference Honors Choir on Thursday, February 2nd. The concert was held at Whitewater High School after a day of rehearsal under the direction of Dr. Robert Gehrenbeck, Director of Choral Activities at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Dr. Sarah Read Gehrenbeck performed as the collaborative keyboard artist. Students singing in the Honors Choir were selected from Beloit Turner, Big Foot, Clinton, East Troy, Edgerton, Evansville, Jefferson, McFarland, and Whitewater high schools. The Whitewater students who sang in the choir were Katie Block, Meridyth Cashion, Jazmin Falcon, Josh Kirley, Marina Linos, Aliciana Lopez, Myles Morse, and Zel Scherer. Congratulations on an excellent performance!
A video excerpt of the rehearsal of “Roll, Jordan, Roll” is available here.
The following area students have been named to the Dean’s List at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for the fall semester of the 2022-23 academic year, ending December 2022.
Qualification for the Dean’s List is limited to students who have attained outstanding academic achievement. To be eligible, students must have earned not less than a 3.5 semester grade point average and carried a minimum of 12 credits.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, founded in 1909, is one of the 13 four-year institutions in the University of Wisconsin System. UWL offers 130-plus degree programs from undergraduate to doctoral levels in arts, social science and humanities; science and health; business; and education. UW-La Crosse – www.uwlax.edu – is a top-ranked national university. It is the No. 1 public university in Wisconsin with less than 25,000 students, according to U.S. News & World Report’s Best National Universities ranking.
Students on the Dean’s List from this area include:
Bryce Hibbs, Communication Studies Major: Organizational and Professional Communication Emphasis Josie Hintz, Finance Major Catherine Skindingsrude, Biology Major: Biomedical Science Concentration Celine Zahn, Therapeutic Recreation Major
Guest designer Em Allen paints rocks for the showStudents assembling a step unit Students working on the costumes
Update 2/14/23 @ 9:20 p.m. : Sarah Keller from Whitewater, WI, who is studying Music at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, is a member of the cast, serving in the role of Edith in “Pirates of Penzance” by Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.Sarah is a junior, and this is her second collegiate show. She was Aello in the production of “The Harpies” and is now performing the role of Edith. She would like to thank the amazing directors, her cast mates, and the wonderful tech crew for putting on a great show!
The College of Arts and Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater announces the next show of the Theatre/Dance season with “Pirates of Penzance” by Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Directed by Sara J. Griffin, this production will run in the Barnett Theater from February 15-18 at 7:30 p.m. and February 18-19 at 2 p.m. Tickets are on sale for the performances and may be purchased online at tickets.uww.edu or by calling (262) 472-2222. Admission for adults is $18, for those age 65+, $16; for those under 18, $12. There is a $2 surcharge for tickets purchased at the door at the time of the event. The Barnett Theater is located in the Greenhill Center of the Arts at 950 W. Main St., Whitewater, WI 53190.
Set sail with this classic whimsical comedy! Mistakenly apprenticed to a raucous band of pirates, Frederic is caught up between a marauding crew that lacks killer instinct, a squad of overly empathetic policemen, and a modern major-general’s bevy of daughters. Hilarious and hopeful, you’ll find plenty of wit, charm and an abundance of musical gems.
Sir W.S. Gilbert was born in 1836, and at the age of two was kidnapped by Italian gang members but was soon set free. As an adult, Gilbert worked as a lawyer for the high courts in 1861, penning political humor and dramatic stories, illustrated poems and columns to a popular British publication. He wrote to this publication under the name of “Bab,” and after many years of writing, a collection of poems was made into a book for Gilbert. These poems would become inspiration later on for Gilbert’s operettas with Sullivan.
Sir Arthur Sullivan was born in 1842 and was surrounded by music from an early age. Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of 8, and was awarded a prestigious scholarship, attending many prominent academies all over Europe. Over the course of his twenties, Sullivan created many choral works, which then morphed into a desire to create compositions for comic operas.
The duo first teamed up in 1871 to create “Thespis,” as well as two other shows over the next six years. Their smash hit “H.M.S. Pinafore” ran for almost 600 performances. Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas were the first steps in creating what we now know as musical theater, and to fully cement their legacy in history, the duo created their most acclaimed show: “Pirates of Penzance.” The two created fifteen shows during their time together, and created a musical legacy that is still cherished to this day.
On choosing this production, Griffin states, “Since March of 2020, the world has needed an escape. Being forced to stay inside our dwellings, separated from the people and pursuits we love, many of us developed coping mechanisms and desperately sought an escape from the unrelenting angst. Thankfully, the light at the end of the tunnel became clear, for many of us, and all we had to do was wait for it to arrive. But what about the people for whom there was no light? That what awaited them on the other side was just as daunting, unrelenting, and miserable as their current circumstances? This led me to a parallel between our collective recent experience with the collective experience of child workers in the Victorian Era, when ‘Pirates’ was written. Rather than simply present ‘Pirates of Penzance,’ I wanted to put it through a specific lens, one that would give it a context to allow the audience to connect with the story on a more relatable level. I hope you enjoy our production and appreciate the two-hour escape.”
The cast for this production includes Colin Allison as The Pirate King, Erin McKee as Mabel, Nahuel Recoba as Frederic, Robbie Chelius as Major General Stanley, Emma Dutcher as Ruth, Ian Black as Sergeant of Police, Jacob Mhyre as Samuel, Sarah Keller as Edith, Makayla Fedler as Kate, and Tessa Fitzsimmons as Isabel.
“Pirates of Penzance” will run in the Barnett Theater from February 15-18 at 7:30 p.m. and February 18-19 at 2 p.m. Tickets are on sale for the performances and can be purchased in advance online at tickets.uww.edu or by calling (262) 472-2222. The Barnett Theatre is located in the Greenhill Center of the Arts at 950 W. Main St., Whitewater, WI 53190.
Editor’s note: The above press release was received from the UW-W College of Arts & Communication.
On Thursday, February 16, from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m., the League of Women Voters – Whitewater Area will host Dr. Claudia Rueda, Associate Professor of History in the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, for a presentation on Nicaraguan history. Dr. Rueda’s talk will enhance our understanding of the cultural and political environment left behind by the Nicaraguan families who recently immigrated to our community. With having recently welcomed a number of Nicaraguan immigrants to the Whitewater Area, we at the League feel strongly that understanding Nicaragua’s history can assist us in being better friends and neighbors to our new community members as well as other immigrants who now call Wisconsin home.
Dr. Rueda earned a Ph.D. in History from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include Student Protest in Nicaragua, The Sandinista Revolution, Student Movements in Latin America, and Revolution and Rebellion in Cold War Era Latin America. She has taught courses in U.S. History, Colonial Latin America, Dictators and Dirty Wars, and Youth & Protest in the Americas. She authored the 2019 book,Students of Revolution: Youth, Protest, and Coalition Building in Somoza-Era Nicaragua.
This event will be virtual. To attend live, please join the webinar using the URL:https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84236451273. Or, join us by telephone by dialing (312) 626-6799, Webinar ID: 842 3645 1273. The event will be live-streamed on Facebook.com/lwvwhitewater.org and recorded. It will be made available to the public afterward.
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Visit our website at https://my.lwv.org/wisconsin/whitewater-area, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @lwvwhitewater.
