Elaine C Krause

Elaine Krause was born May 5, 1932 to Frank and Willie Mae (Holt) Ziehr in Cisco Texas. She was baptized June 5, 1932 at Grace Lutheran Church in Cisco. She was confirmed on May 27, 1945. She passed away Wednesday, December 10, 2025.

She graduated high school and traveled to Winfield Kansas to attend St. John's Lutheran College to be able to teach in the Lutheran School system. She received a call to Immanual Lutheran School in Temple, Texas and taught grades 1-3 for three years.

Elaine married the love of her life, Alvin Krause, on June 6, 1954. Alvin and Elaine have two daughters, Jan and Kay.

She spent ten years working at Schneider's Dry Goods Store in Copperas Cove. She became a school secretary while attending Mary Hardin Baylor during the summers and nights to complete her BS degree in Education. She then started teaching second grade in several schools in the Copperas Cove School district including Fairview Elementary, Halstead Elementary and Martin Walker Elementary. She completed her teaching career at Martin Walker in 1995. She was a very active member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International and helped establish the local chapter, Lambda Omicron. When she retired from teaching, she was the first president of the newly established Copperas Cove Retired Teachers Association and remained very active until recently.

Elaine loved teaching especially 2nd grade. She was dedicated to helping her students learn. She was patient and kind and always had a smile on her face.

Above all, she loved our Lord and gave many years of her time to teaching Sunday School, being the Sunday School superintendent, and being the director of the Jr Choir at Immanual Lutheran Church in Copperas Cove where she led the annual Christmas Eve service for 50 years.

After retirement, she enjoyed meeting her teacher friends at the local Dairy Queen for after school visits. The DQ group now known as the Walker Lunch Bunch has grown through the years as many more of her friends retired. She truly enjoyed talking and visiting with each and every one of them. The group is still going strong and is a wonderful group of ladies.

Elaine was overjoyed when she finally became Grandma 18 years ago. She had two pride and joys that she adored, Nash and Elaina. She loved to read, do crafts and spend as much time as possible with them.

Elaine is preceded in death by Alvin, her parents, sister Kathleen and brother Joe D.

Elaine is survived by her two children, Jan Pena and her spouse Richard, Kay Tlustos and her spouse Sonny, grandson Nash Pena, granddaughter Elaina Tlustos, her brother Roland Ziehr and wife Jean and numerous nieces and nephews.

A time of visitation will be held Friday, December 19, 2025 from 6:00-8:00 PM at Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home of Copperas Cove. The funeral service will be Saturday, December 20,2025 at 10:00 AM at Immanuel Lutheran Church with the burial to follow at Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, you may make a memorial to the Immanual Lutheran Church building fund.