Located in Alturas Cemetery is the headstone of Thelma M. Weilmunster, who was born on April 18, 1912 and died on January 8, 2013. She shares this headstone with her husband, Clinton A. Weilmunster, who lived from July 30, 1913 to February 6, 2005. I could find no online obituary for Thelma but I did find a very nice online
article that highlights a hip surgery that Thelma underwent in 2002 as well as some family history. It reads:
54 years, through sickness, health, Modoc'ers made it through tough times. At 78, Thelma Weilmunster of Alturas, only has one regret about the extensive hip surgery she recently underwent, and that is she didn't have it done two years sooner. Although recover has been slow and sometimes painful, Mrs. Weilmunster is looking a head to the time when she will be up and about again, and being able to enjoy some of the activities she has had to miss. "I should have ad this done two years ago," Mrs. Weilmunster said, as she lounged in her recliner, a heavy blanket pulled snugly around her. "I always worked in the yard and for the last two years I just haven't been able to," she explained. "I've always been busy, doing a log of things, and it's just about driven me crazy." She added about her inability to do some of the tasks she was accustomed to. As Mrs. Weilmunster found it harder and harder to get about the home she
and her husband, Alden have shared for the past 45 years, she knew it was time to have something done. The something turned out to be having both hip sockets and balls replaced. "At first we thought it was her knee," Weilmunster said about his wife's condition. "Then we went to another doctor and found it was her hip that was causing her so much trouble." Before the actual surgery, Mrs. Weilmunster found it necessary to start building up her strength to face the ordeal. She was also required to give blood for three weeks which was saved for the operation. "They said there would be less shock to her system," Weilmunster explained. After several postponements, Mrs. Weilmunster's doctor finally thought she was ready for surgery and she was taken to Medford. During the three hour surgery, a curved incision going the upper thigh along the joint line, was made, Mrs. Weilmunster said, showing one of the neat, pink marks that are new fairly well healed. Coming to following the operation, she said, "I remember feeling my legs and they just felt like stone." "They can really do some amazing things," Mrs. Weilmunster explained about
joint replacement. "I go back to the doctor pretty soon, and then we'll see just how this has gone."
54 YEARS is a long time to know someone, but from ranching life to recent medical problems, Alden and Thelma Weilmunster of Alturas are determined. Although Mrs. Weilmunster said she was in quite a bit of pain following the surgery, she said she is beginning to feel better all the time. For now, she said she is content to rest and build up her strength. Since returning home from the hospital, Mrs. Weillmunster said she has fallen into a daily routine beginning with a series of exercises that help keep her tendons limber. Following her bath, she uses her walker and makes her way to her favorite chair that is positioned right next to the cozy oil heater. Her husband prepared the home for her return by picking up all the throw rugs so she would have a clear path to walk in around the house. Weilmunster finds he keeps busy replacing his wife with the general chores around the house, and preparing meals. "He's doing a good job," Mrs. Weilmunster said earlier. "His biggest problem is that he said it's getting hard to decide what to fix. I just laughed and told him that how he knows how I felt after all these years." Just before Mrs. Weilmunster underwent surgery, she and her husband celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary. The couple met on a blind date and were married on Aug. 30, 1936, at the church in Cedarville. Mrs. Weilmunster said she believes the surgery is well worth having, but advises others who are considering it, not to wait as long as she did. "We were married by Rev. Vineyard, a long time friend of our family," Mrs. Weilmunster explained. "Here we were celebrating it on one date, then we found the marriage license and it had it on another day," Weilmunster said about their wedding date. As the couple laughed about the mix up, they explained they had celebrated the occasion on Aug. 31 for years, then learned of their error. Mrs. Weilmunster was born in Alturas to George and Ellen Girner, she explained, talking of her early years in Modoc County. Her father had come from Carson City and met her mother in Cedarville. Weilmunster, was born in 1913 in Lake City to George and Cora Weilmunster Surprise Valley ranchers. "They named everybody George in those days," Mrs. Weilmunster said about their fathers having the first same name.
"When we were first married we ranched," Mrs. Weilmunster explained, about their early years together. They remained on their ranch near Lake City for seven years, until a doctor recommended that Weilmunster give up ranching because of his allergies. While they were still ranching, Weilmunster said he got a job poisoning squirrels as a way to make ends meet. After some studying, he was finally able to pass a test and become certified at the task. "It was hard, it was really hard," Weilmunster recalled about operating his ranch during the Depression years. "We drove a four-horse team while we feed our stock and the whole time she buckarooed right along with me," he said, nodding to his small, gray-haired wife.
Thinking about his ranching days, he said, "Actually it was my father's land. I didn't own any farm land or range land." In 1943, the Weilmunsters left the ranching life behind, and purchased a home on Second Street in Alturas where they still live. After their move to town, Weilmunster spent over four years working at the Alturas Creamery and stockyard. "That's when it was a real creamery," he said. In those days milk was collected from local ranches and either distributed or taken to companies where it was processed and made into cheese. He later went to work for the state at the quarantine station, where he was employed for 25 years. During their years together, they raised one son, Jack McCombs, Mrs. Weilmunster's son from a previous marriage, who lives in Alturas. They also help raise their grandson, Audie, and until her surgery, the couple spent
their days taking care of the third generation, great-grandson, Dane. A baby great-granddaughter born Tuesday morning. (Nov. 8, 1990)