Ottilia Funkhouser was born Ottilia Halbach in Waterford, Wisconsin in 1896 and
attended Marquette University, completing a Journalism degree in 1920. She moved to
Albuquerque, New Mexico in the 1920s for health reasons and began writing for the
Albuquerque Journal. In 1925, she and her first
husband, R. George Gauerke, returned to Wisconsin and Ottilia wrote for the Milwaukee Journal, the Wisconsin
News, the Milwaukee Leader, the Catholic Herald, and later the Shorewood Herald. After Gauerke died in 1970, Ottilia married Clifford
Funkhouser, with whom she collaborated on some writing projects, until both of their
deaths in 1984. She is often referred to as “Teal” in correspondence.
