Oelke, Anneliese E.

Anneliese E. Oelke

Anneliese “Lisa” Elisabeth Oelke was born on January 28, 1933 in Ernsthof, Germany/East Prussia (which is now Poland). She passed away on February 5, 2022 surrounded by her family in St. Louis, Missouri, where she lived a majority of her bright and full 89 years. She is survived by her two daughters, Kathleen Kienstra and Jeaneane Oelke, and was a beloved “Omo” to her three grandchildren, Stefanie, Elizabeth and Christopher.

Lisa grew up in the foothills of the Black Forest area, which was so close to the border of France that she regularly played with friends who lived there as a child. She moved to Hanover as a young woman to be an apprentice at a beauty school, which is where she met Johannes (“John”, 1929-2019). They instantly fell for one another, and John would take each of his older sisters to the beauty salon to catch every glimpse he could of Lisa. He proposed to her on her birthday, January 28, 1953, and headed to the United States in search of the dream and promise of America, planning to send for her soon after.

Lisa joined John in the US about a year later, when she was only 21 years old. She and John married on May 29, 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri. She worked in a beauty salon and eventually purchased her own salon, called Lisa’s Salon de Beauté, which was the first of several beauty salons that she owned over her life.

Kathleen was born in 1957, and only a few years after that, Lisa became a naturalized citizen February 10, 1961. Jeaneane was born on August 24, 1965, and their family of four moved to Grantwood Village on Rock Forest Drive in 1966. They lived in that home, filled with tunes from their jukebox and John playing the bass, serving stiff German cocktails, and hosting festive Christmas Eve celebrations with family and friends until 2017.

Lisa was always full of energy, light, and a passion to tell you what she thought. She was the definition of the word “fun”, and turned up the music and led dance parties in every room she walked into. She loved eating John’s pancakes on Sunday morning with her family, making everyone around her beautiful with her hair talents, and playing Blue Danube on repeat. She was a master at penny slots and was incredibly lucky–she even won a few hundred dollars in under 10 minutes in one outing! She enjoyed a Busch light out of a crystal glass each afternoon, spending long days at the lake, and most of all, loved her family more than anything.