Emma Hermann Thieme, 101, passed peacefully out of this world from her home in Sheboygan on May 24.
Emma and her twin brother were born–at home–in Sheboygan on September 10, 1924, and except for a brief stint in Washington DC, where she served as a government secretary during World War II, she spent her long life there. She grew up in the German-Russian community fostered by Trinity Lutheran Church in the first half of the 20th century, attended Trinity’s grade school, and graduated from Sheboygan Central High in 1942. Although her husband, Richard, was in the same class, they met after the war, when she worked as a switchboard operator at Ebenreiter Lumber Company. They were happily married for 69 years, from September 12, 1948, until his death in 2017.
Emma devoted a significant portion of her married life to raising four children and supporting her husband’s career. She was a fastidious homemaker and record-keeper and deeply committed to volunteer work at Trinity and elsewhere, most notably using her longstanding interest in genealogy and local history to document church and school history from 1853 onward and to prepare a history of the first 100 years of German-Russian settlement in Sheboygan for the local chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.
Emma also preserved her family’s history in many volumes of genealogy, photographs, personal accounts, and transcribed interviews. She published two books–Kith and Kin, a history of the extended Thieme family, and Bits & Pieces, a description of daily life in pre-revolutionary Russia based interviews with an older sibling–and was completing another major historical project at the time of her death. Her children’s lives are well-documented in photos and scrapbooks.
Because of her sharp mind and vital appearance, people often misjudged Emma’s age. She appreciated their compliments but sometimes said privately that she felt the full weight of it herself. She was, nevertheless, deeply thankful for the many blessings of her long life and especially grateful that with the help of her son Ted, her caring neighbors, and the staff of Embrace Care Management and Sharon Richardson Hospice, she was able to remain in her home with a degree of independence until her life ended there.
Emma is survived by her children Thomas “Tom” (Candida), Jeanne, Theodore “Ted,” and John “Jack” (Judy); her grandson Geoffrey (Stacey); 2 great-grandchildren (Kailey and Kyle Thieme); 3 cousins; and 10 nieces and nephews. As a genealogist, she would appreciate that the following information is also included here: Her parents were Gottlieb and Rosina (Ertel) Hermann, whose emigration from Schaefer, Russia, was disrupted by the Revolution of 1917, so that they arrived in Sheboygan in 1912 and 1923, respectively. She was baptized on September 21, 1924, and confirmed on April 10, 1938, at Trinity Lutheran Church, in German, by the Rev. C.P. Schulz, and was preceded in death by her twin brother, David; her younger brother, Jacob; 3 brothers who died as infants in Russia; and her older siblings Gottlieb II, Johannes, Helena Hermann Richter, and Sophie Hermann Knop.
A Funeral Service for Emma will take place at 12:00PM on Thursday, May 28, 2026, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 824 Wisconsin Ave. in Sheboygan, with Pastor Timothy Mech officiating. Family will greet visitors at the church, on Thursday, from 10:00 AM until the time of the service. Emma will be laid to rest at Lutheran Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established in Emma’s name.
Ballhorn Chapels is caring for the family and an online condolence can be sent to www.ballhornchapels.com
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