Gisela Franke

Gisela Franke, age 94, of Copperas Cove passed away on Monday, October 4, 2021. Graveside Services will be held at 9:00 AM, Thursday, October 7, 2021, at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.

Gisela was born in Alsfeld, Germany, to Georg and Johanna Marie Henriette Morgenthaler on August 8, 1927.  She met her future husband in Germany while she was working as an international telephone operator and he was in the U.S. Army. They were married in 1955 and moved to the United States when her husband’s enlistment in the U.S. Army came to an end.  Gisela became a proud, naturalized American citizen in 1958. Her husband had also rejoined the Army to serve as a career Soldier.

Gisela raised three children as an Army spouse, with her husband’s assignments in Germany and Okinawa and around the U.S.  She was an avid reader all her life, introducing the joy of reading to her children.  She was even able to apply her devotion to books as the assistant manager of “Books ‘n’ Things” in Copperas Cove in the 1970s.  Gisela loved gardening and raising plants year-round.  She cared deeply about the welfare of animals, rescuing many an abandoned cat and dog.

She lived with her family in Copperas Cove for the last 50 years and was able to see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow.  She also enjoyed meeting regularly with friends who had come from the “old country,” hosting and baking for them.

Gisela is preceded in death by her parents and her brother Herbert.

Gisela is survived by her husband, Henry G. Franke, Jr.; her children Henry III, Ronald and his wife Annette, and Thomas; her grandchildren Jennifer Rutledge and her husband Jonathan, and Christina Bell and her husband Codey; and her great-grandchildren Jacob, Grace, Caleb, Cooper, Quinn, Maggie, and Lincoln.