Hintze, Jeannelle R. “Jill” (nee Karcher)

Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death. He has won forgiveness of sins by His sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus, resurrected to life and ascended into heaven, now reigns in heaven with the Father and Holy Spirit. Jesus has prepared a home for us in heaven. Our bodies will be resurrected to spend eternal life in heaven. Let us remember with thanksgiving how God has blessed Jeannelle (or lovingly called Jill) during her lifetime.

Veran Jeannelle Ruth Karcher was born on May 26, 1927 in Vernon, Texas – the fourth daughter of Ernest and Olivia (Kiesling) Karcher. She received the gift of Holy Baptism on June 19, 1927 and became a child of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. She was baptized St. Paul Lutheran Church in Vernon, Texas by Rev. J. A. Birnbaum and on May 5, 1940, she confessed her faith, was confirmed and received the precious gift of the Lord’s life-giving body and blood through Holy Communion. Her confirmation verse is Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

Jill and her five sisters lived on a farm. Since there were no sons in the family, the girls worked like boys to help their father on the farm. They were provided the gift of music. Each one played a musical instrument and took lessons to form an orchestra known as “The Karcher Sisters.” Dorothy (piano), Myrtle (violin), Caroline (guitar), Jeannelle (48 bass piano accordion), Helen Bernice (mandolin), Ruth Marie (12 bass piano accordion). In later years Ruth Marie also learned to play the piano.

The first eight years of school for Jill were spent at St. Paul Lutheran in Vernon, Texas and the next four years were spent at Vernon High School. After high school she spent two years studying to become a Parish Worker at St. John’s College in Winfield, Kansas, which enabled her to teach in a Lutheran parochial school. Her first year of teaching was in a one-room, eight-grade school in Oberlin, Kansas. The following year she taught grades 3 and 4 at Trinity Lutheran School in Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1948 she became engaged to be married to Otto C. Hintze, a student at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.

When Otto graduated from Concordia Seminary, he received the call (together with Willard Burce) to be one of the first two missionaries of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod to begin mission work in the Highlands of New Guinea. Otto and Jill spent the next 17 years of their lives serving the Lord in New Guinea. The Lord blessed them with six children: Kathryn, David, Margaret, Charles, Nathan and Kenneth. Nathan was born in 1959, but lived only a short while. He was baptized before he died and is buried in the cemetery for LCMS missionaries at Immanuel Lutheran Hospital at Mambisanda.

Otto and Jill considered it a privilege to be able to serve the Lord in New Guinea. They had marvelous experiences, learning to speak a language that had never been written and teaching people the saving Gospel who had never heard of the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

After returning to the USA in 1965, Otto taught at Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, Illinois for ten years. Jill operated a licensed day-care center in her home for five years and then taught Preschool at Concordia Lutheran Church in Springfield, Illinois for four years. After Otto was called to St. Louis to work with the LCMS Board of Missions, Jill taught Preschool for ten years at Peace Lutheran Church in St. Louis. She was also the Sunday School Superintendent at Ascension Lutheran Church in St. Louis for five years.

While living in Springfield, Illinois, Jill served for five years as the Recording Secretary for the Central Illinois District of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML). Then in St. Louis, she spent four years as II Vice President of the LWML Southwest Zone of St. Louis and six years as the Service Chairman of the LWML Missouri District.

Time was also spent at Concordia Historical Institute in St. Louis, Missouri researching records for compiling the genealogy of the Friedrich Karcher family, her father’s ancestors. That effort required ten years of work. During those years she attended the Auxiliary of Concordia Historical Institute meetings and served as Membership Chairman, President and Recording Secretary.

One of Jill’s goals was to compile the genealogies of both of her parents (Karcher and Kiesling) and those of her husband’s parents (Hintze and Greene). In addition, she compiled a genealogy for Ernest and Olivia Karcher, her immediate family.

In 2004 Jill began attending meetings of the Auxiliary of Laclede Groves Convalescent Home. She served as Membership Chairman (3 years) and Recording Secretary (5 years). In November 2010 Otto and Jill moved to the Manor of Laclede Groves Retirement Community.

Otto was called to his heavenly home on Palm Sunday in March 2016. Jill was also preceded in death by her parents – Ernest and Olivia Karcher; five sisters and spouses – Dorothy and Robert Schoppa, Myrtle and Lawrence Hingst, Caroline and Edgar Blochberger, Helen Bernice Karcher, Ruth and Glenn Mueller; eldest daughter, Kathryn; infant son, Nathan; and grandson, Keith Frank.

Jill is survived by her children and spouses: Peter Prange, David and Charlotte Hintze, Margaret and Edmund Frank, Charles and Helga Hintze, Kenneth and Jodie Hintze.

Visitation at Laclede Groves Chapel 723 So. Laclede Station Road 63119 on Friday, January 3 from 9:30 am. until Funeral Service time at 10:30 am. Interment at Sunset Cemetery.