Substitute teacher was pianist, artist

9/7/2002

Mary Ann Klaudt, a former substitute teacher for Toledo Public Schools, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday in Lutheran Village at Wolf Creek, Springfield Township. She was 99.

Mrs. Klaudt was a substitute kindergarten teacher in the 1950s and 1960s, according to her daughter, Doris Matthews.

“She taught throughout the system, wherever she was needed. Sometimes she was at a school for as long as three months; sometimes it was just for a day,” Mrs. Matthews said.

Mrs. Klaudt was born and raised in New Holstein, Wis., where her father, August Vollstedt, was a butcher.

After graduating from high school, she attended the Milwaukee State Normal School, earning a degree in teaching. The college became the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

She and her husband, the Rev. Theodore Klaudt, were married in 1926. He died in 1980.

After a stint in Tipton, Iowa, they moved to Archbold, Ohio, in 1930 and Mr. Klaudt became pastor of what today is St. John's United Church of Christ. In 1947, the couple came to Toledo, where Mr. Klaudt for many years was pastor of First United Church of Christ on Cherry Street.

Mrs. Klaudt was an accomplished pianist and watercolorist, her daughter said. She also enjoyed collecting music boxes and brass and crystal bells.

She remained in her West Toledo home on Lambert Drive until two years ago, when she moved to the assisted-living facility at Lutheran Village. She transferred to the nursing home part of the community two weeks before her death.

Surviving are her daughter, Doris Matthews, five grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday in Faith Community United Church of Christ in South Toledo. The body will be in the H.H. Birkenkamp Funeral Home Trilby Chapel after 2 p.m. tomorrow and at the church an hour before the funeral. Arrangements are by Bennett-Emmert-Szakovits Funeral Home.

The family requests tributes to Faith Community United Church of Christ choir or to Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg Township.