Olga Alwina Brunner died peacefully at Coves Edge in Damariscotta on May 20.
The daughter of Heinrich and Wilhelmine Kaiser Buri, Olga was born in Waldshut, Germany on Oct. 6, 1902. Olga graduated from boarding school in 1920 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1923, where she intended to live with an aunt and uncle in Arizona. Plans went awry when she arrived at Ellis Island from Hamburg and made arrangements to stay with the Lunberg family in New York City. She was a lady’s maid to several families in the greater New York City area and visited Bar Harbor in the 1920s with a family she served.
She returned to Germany where she met Karl Frederick Brunner, a recent engineering graduate from Mannheim Technological School, working at a Lonza Plant nearby Waldshut. Concerned about the Fascist movement, she returned to New York City in the late 1920s seeking opportunities presented in the U.S. While Karl worked at Otis Elevator Company and then Murray Manufacturing Co., Olga worked as a waitress.
She raised two sons, Nils Karlheinz and Dirk Roland and was active in the Floral Park Methodist Church, March of Dimes, and as a Cub Scout Den Leader in N.Y. She was accomplished in cooking, knitting, needlepoint, and crocheting. She enjoyed dogs, cats, sewing, gardening, canning, opera, Broadway shows, playing pinochle, canasta and samba with family and friends.
Prior to her husband’s retirement they moved to Charlottesville, Va., where she continued with her handicrafts and made longtime friendships with neighbors. After 30 years in Virginia, Olga joined her son Dirk to live in the MidCoast Maine area in 1998.
She was predeceased by her parents, brother Frowin, and her husband.
She is survived by her two sons; daughter-in-law Linda Brunner; grandchildren, Roland Brunner, Holly James, Amy Brunner, Karl Brunner, and Eric Brunner; and great-grandchildren, Hannah and Cameron James.
She will be remembered for her love of children, pets, music, handicrafts; and her strong will and commitment to truth, and for following a disciplined, honorable life. She was thankful and very grateful for all those she knew and loved, those who cared for her in recent years, and to God for a long, successful, and happy life.
