Hildegarde Koch Baitinger

Esther Hildegarde Koch Baitinger was born June 28, 1921 in Johnson County, Indiana. The second of three daughters of John and Marjorie Koch, teachers, she graduated from Indiana State Teachers College (now Indiana State University) in Terre Haute just after the United States entered WW II. She taught English, Latin and mathematics in high schools in Illinois and Indiana for four years and spent one year as a volunteer with the American Friends Service Committee at a women's prison in New Jersey. In 1947, she moved to Detroit and became an elementary and kindergarten teacher. In 1950, she met and married Donald Baitinger, who worked for the US Civil Service at the Veterans Administration in downtown Miami and later at Homestead Air Force Base. They lived for ten years on South Dixie Highway near Coconut Grove and for almost forty years in Perrine before Donald died in 1998. They have two daughters. In 2000, Hildegarde moved to East Ridge Retirement Village in Cutler Bay. At ERRV, she was an active member of many social groups and loved to play bridge, read, knit, and help in the thrift shop. She was an active member of Holy Rosary (now Holy Rosary/St. Richard) parish for more than 60 years, serving as a Eucharistic minister and occasional lector. She is survived by her two daughters, one grandson, and seven nieces and nephews.

A funeral Mass will be held for Hildegarde at 11:00 am on Friday, May 7, at Holy Rosary/St. Richard Catholic Church, 7500 SW 152 St., Palmetto Bay. Hildegarde’s mass will be live streamed on Holy Rosary-St. Richard Catholic Church's Facebook and YouTube websites on Friday, May 7 (it can also be viewed later). https://www.facebook.com/Holy-Rosary-St-Richard-Catholic-Church-155377751176816/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfkoZ7hxVQJ3YVg-eT5edLQ/live
Interment Caballero Woodlawn South.