Addie Wilkins was born in 1933 in Gleason, TN, one of 10 children. She attended the Weakley County Training School, then Harris Stowe College. She took theology courses at Eden Seminary, St. Louis University, and was consecrated as a...

The Deaconess Conference (as it was originally called) was organized in 1934 at a meeting held at the Bethesda Home, Watertown, Wisconsin. A preliminary meeting had been held at the Ft. Wayne Deaconess Home in 1933. At that meeting were...

Otto Paul Kretzmann was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1901 and grew up in New York City in a Lutheran family. His father, grandfather, and five brothers were all Lutheran pastors. He was called 'John' by family and close friends, but...

Speakers at the groundbreaking service. Dr. O.P. Kretzmann is second from the left. Spectators at the groundbreaking for Deaconess Hall On May 13, 1956, groundbreaking was held for a new Deaconess chapter house on the grounds of...

Hertha Fischer was born in 1930 in New York City. At age seven, she tagged along as an older sibling attended confirmation class at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Tremont in the Bronx. Her family attended church only for the occasions of...

Pastor Arnold Krentz In 1941, Superintendent Kohlmeier retired due to health reasons, and Pr. Arnold Krentz became Superintendent. He had served as a pastor in Alberta, Canada and at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Mt. Clemens,...

Florence Storck was born in 1914 in St. Louis, MO. She entered deaconess training at the training school in Ft. Wayne and was consecrated in June 1937. In her first call, she served at an orphan's home in Des Peres, MO for 2 years, then...

In 1921, Pastor Kirst of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin approached the LDA about opening a hospital there. The Deaconess Hospital Foundation and representatives of the LDA agreed that for the sum of $50,000, a large property on Beaver Lake was to...

Gertrude Simon was born in 1900, in Zachow, Wisconsin. She graduated from the Lutheran Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1926. After graduation, she accepted a position to serve in China. She arrived in Hankow in 1927...

Once the Association was established, the next challenge for Pastor Herzberger was to find a "centrally located Motherhouse where our women workers can be trained and where they can find their home when sickness or old age incapacitates...