Louise Bausch Holder

Louise Sophie Bausch Holder was born on December 21, 1927 in Whitehall, Montana. There was a snowy blizzard that night and the maternity doctor was unable to get to the Bausch home to assist with the delivery, so a neighbor lady was called on to help. Her family included four brothers and three sisters, and she attended all 12 grades of school in Twin Bridges, Montana, graduating in May 1945. In June of 1945 she was accepted into one of the last classes of the Cadet Nurses Corps that was formed during World War II. Though the intention was that the nurses graduating from this program at no cost to themselves would pay for the program by serving in U.S. military hospitals during the war, the war ended before she graduated in June 1948. After graduating, she worked in her training hospital for one more year before her sense of exploration and travel called her away on a number of adventures.

First, she moved to Denver with a friend from class and worked in a hospital there for two years. Then they heard the siren’s call to Honolulu, Hawaii where she and another friend moved and worked in a hospital operating room. She said this was when her heart was “young and gay” and she spent a lot of free time on the beach, exploring, and socializing. After a year they decided it was time to return, so they moved and worked in a Seattle hospital for two years, then on to Spokane for two more years. Finally, probably missing the sand and surf in Hawaii, she set out by herself from Spokane in an unreliable car, during a raging blizzard, with disabled vehicles cluttering the roadsides. Miraculously, she was successful and made her way south until she got to San Diego. She took a new position at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla where she worked for six years.

The southern California climate was also conducive to romance and she was introduced by the Chief Surgeon at Scripps to his son and her future husband of 42 years, Gil Holder. They moved to La Mesa and had one daughter, Carolyn and one son, Greg. Gil worked at the 32nd Street Naval Station and with two small children at home, she became a stay-at-home mom. When the kids were in elementary school, she felt she could work part-time and obtained a position on 2 West at Grossmont Hospital. When the kids were in high school, she decided she could work-full time and did so in women’s surgical until retirement in 1989, after being at Grossmont Hospital for 22 years.

Her daughter Carolyn married Stephen Kapp and they have two sons – Aaron and Brandon. In 2015, Brandon married Marissa Vergara, and in 2020 mom was blessed with her first great grandchild, Nathaniel. Her son Greg married Marcie Smith and they have a son, Abraham, and a daughter, Leah. Mom was an active member of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in La Mesa for many years and in her later years was just as active at First Lutheran Church in El Cajon. She was involved in Bible Study Fellowship for 20 years, and served as a Discussion Leader for 16 of those years. Always having a servant’s heart, she enjoyed her volunteer work helping 3rd graders improve their reading skills at Lexington Elementary School in El Cajon.

Our mother, aunt, friend and Christian sister will be greatly missed and warmly remembered – but our hearts are secure and at peace knowing that she had a strong relationship with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and she is now secure with Him. In her later years, she spoke often of being ready for her next stage of the journey and looked forward to meeting her Redeemer, and to being reunited with her friends and family that had gone on before.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 19, 2022 at 2:00pm in the Bailey Center at Mt. Miguel Covenant Village, 325 Kempton Street, Spring Valley, CA 91977.