Gertrud (Gerti) Angelo was born on September 13, 1939, in Frankfurt, Germany and passed away on March 18, 2025, in Beaverdale, Iowa.
She was the 10th of 12 children born to Kurt and Maria Lehmpfuhl. The horrors of war broke up her family and she was placed in an orphan's home - where she remembered American soldiers coming to the home with toys, soap, and toothpaste at Christmas time. Christmas was a recurring time of joy for her, and it became her favorite time of year.
She was placed with foster parents Konrad and Elizabeth Loeffler and lived with two foster brothers, Rudi, and Freddie in the small town of Lichenroth. She felt like an outsider until a teacher selected her to sing a solo at a Christmas service. Her foster mother made her a long white gown with wings and Gertrud performed the song, "From Heaven On High I Came" while clutching two lit candles in her hands and looking down on the townspeople from the balcony of the church. Each parishioner embraced her after the service and Gerti finally felt like she belonged - cementing her lifelong love of music and Christmas.
At 18, Gertrud returned to Frankfurt to live in a women's home and work in a hospital, where she had the good fortune to meet a talented American singer named Elvis Presley when he showed up to donate blood. She met another American soldier, Weldon Angelo, and married him on the Frankfurt square on April 6, 1964, possibly breaking Elvis' heart. She then flew to Weldon's hometown, St. Louis, Missouri, ahead of the end of his tour of duty and was greeted at the airport by a line of Sicilian-American women bearing flowers and welcoming her to the family with kisses on both cheeks.
Gertrud was proud of her German heritage but eagerly became a naturalized American citizen in 1976. Ultimately, she lived the American dream: raising two children, Tanya and Jeff, and filling her suburban home with friends, pets, music, the smell of barbecue, and the sound of St. Louis Cardinals baseball. Away from home, she loved spending time with her friends from work (known simply as, "The Bank") and on a houseboat at the Lake Of The Ozarks with the Hackmans.
She is survived by her children, Tanya and Jeff, son-in-law George, grandchildren Kayla (husband Chris) and Logan, great-grandchildren Haylee, Bentley, Grayson, and Indy, and countless nieces and nephews both in Missouri and Deutschland.
She was preceded in death by husband Weldon (pronounced "Veldon"), her parents and foster parents, and siblings Karl, Lieselotte, Kurt, Inge, Hermann, Rudi, Helga, Margot, Guenter, Dieter, and Ursula.
Services will be held Wednesday, March 26, at 1:45 pm at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis and she'll be laid to rest next to husband Weldon, who has probably already snuck up on her and pinched her multiple times in heaven while laughing at her surprised yelps.
