Audrey Sander

Audrey Mae Sander, age 94, passed away on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, at Oakwood Village/University Woods Memory Care in Madison, Wis. Memorial Service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 1, 2024 at Peace Lutheran Church in Arlington.  Rev. Craig McCourt will officiate.  Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church on Saturday morning.  Interment will be in Arlington Public Cemetery, followed by lunch and fellowship at the church social hall.

She was born on Sept. 27, 1929, in Arlington, Minn., the daughter of Paul Carl Nagel and Frieda Louise Oldenburg.

Audrey was united in marriage to Rutherford Louis “Rudy” Sander Jr., on May 14, 1954, in Phoenix, Ariz. Audrey was shaped by her upbringing during the depression, on a farm in Arlington, which has proudly been in the Nagel family for 154 years.  She loved her siblings and her extended family, and she valued any time that she was able to spend with them.  Her immediate family can testify to the fact that she was a loving and devoted wife, mother, and grandmother.

Audrey was also independent-minded and determined. She worked to put herself through college, graduating from Augsburg College in Minneapolis in 1951. In 1974 she earned a master’s degree in business education from Governor’s State University in Illinois. Her first teaching job was in White Bear Lake, Minn., before she was married.  She returned to teaching part time in the early 1970s and taught business education classes at Rich Central High School and at Prairie State Community College both in Illinois.  She was an educator by profession but was a lifelong learner and an avid reader.

She was a doer, not a bystander. Audrey was a tireless volunteer and used her organizational and people skills to serve organizations and causes that she believed in.

Audrey was always conscious of her own health and the health of her family and modeled healthy habits which her family did their best to follow. She was always fit and active, especially later in her life when she had more time for recreation.  She didn’t shy away from hard labor and enjoyed the outdoors. She loved playing tennis, and she developed an interest in hiking while living in Tucson, Ariz. She was 62 when she joined the Southern Arizona Hiking Club and she completed more than 150 hikes over the next 15 years.

After she gave up hiking and playing tennis, she still walked a mile at least once a day, enjoying the desert scenery that she loved so much.  She lived in a wonderful neighborhood and benefitted from the help and support that her Tucson neighbors provided, especially in her later years.

Also foundational to her life was her Lutheran faith. She had an active spiritual life and devoted her talents and energy in service to the mission of every church where she was a member.

Audrey is survived by her daughter, Robin Potter (Steve); son, Mitch Sander (Wendy); granddaughters, Julia Potter and Emily, Rachel and Abigail Sander; sisters, Elaine Nelson and Sharon Sickmann (Larry); brothers, Lowell, Paul (Vonnie), Rich (Roseann) and Phillip Nagel; sisters-in-law, Joan (Daryl) Nagel and Alberta “Simmie” (Robert) Sander; and 24 nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Rudy Sander; brothers, Stanley, Daryl and Bill Nagel; sister-in-law, Bonnie (Lowell) Nagel and DeWain Nelson; brother-in-law, Robert Sander; sister-in-law, Ramona (Sander) (Kenneth) Polzin: nephew, Gregory Nagel; and niece, Dawn (Nelson) Hacker.

She lived for 32 years after the death of her dear husband, Rudy.  She will be greatly missed by her family and friends. May she rest in peace.

Special thanks to the staff at Covenant Oaks-Oakwood Village/University Woods and Agrace Hospice who provided care for Audrey over the past five years.