Mary E. Buschkowsky

Lifelong Madison Lake resident Mary (Kortuem) Buschkowsky passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home with her oldest son, Brian, by her side in the early morning hours of July 10th, 2020. Her health had been slowly declining since suffering a stroke a year prior.

Mass of Christian Burial 11:00 a.m., July 25, 2020 at All Saints Catholic Church in Madison Lake with visitation from 9:30 to 11am. The family of Mary requests that those attending maintain a 6ft social distance, refrain from hand shaking, and wear a facial covering while inside the church. Mankato Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Born on May 25th, 1937, she was the first of seven children to third generation Marysburg area farmers, George and Rose (Mertensotto) Kortuem. She was part of the first high school class to attend the University of Minnesota’s Southern School of Agriculture in Waseca and graduated in 1954. She received her bachelor’s degree in Nursing at Mankato State College in 1957 and began her first job as a Registered Nurse working in the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Mankato. While in college, she met her future husband, Dennis, while playing cards, a favorite pastime of theirs. They married on May 13, 1961, at Marysburg Church, and held their reception at Point Pleasant resort on Madison Lake. Shortly after they moved to Centralia, Washington, where Dennis worked as a middle school teacher and Mary at the hospital. Homesickness quickly set in for Mary, and they soon found themselves back in Southern Minnesota. They eventually settled on an old farmstead located along the North Shore of Madison Lake, where they’ve resided for over 50 years. With the births of her two sons, Mary took a step back from working as a full-time RN and instead worked various part-time jobs while using her nursing skills to help numerous area residents in need of short- and long-term medical care. As her youngest son grew older, she began instructing nursing courses at South Central Technical College. In 1997, she received the Jerry Lewis Humanitarian Award and Teacher of the Year Award. She retired from teaching in 2001 after 18 years of service but continued to serve those in need within her community. She was honored in 2002 by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota as a “Champion of Health” in recognition of her community service. In 2007, she and her sister, Rose Anne Schoeb, served as Grand Marshals during Madison Lake’s annual Paddlefish Days celebration. She and Dennis were the official Madison Lake ice-off record keepers for 41 years before passing the duty onto her nephew, Steve Schoeb, last fall.

Mary will always be remembered as a hard-working, generous, loving, and kind woman who spent much of her free time during the summer in her beloved flower gardens. An avid reader and card player, she rarely watched TV except for the evening news and “MASH” re-runs. She served as an active member of the Madison Lake Area Historical Society for many years. She was often seen smoking a tobacco pipe while driving “Old Blue”, her 1964 baby blue Ford pick-up, in her young adult years, organizing and delivering flower pots to Madison Lake businesses, donating blood when the blood mobile was in town, and sending weekly “brightly colored envelopes” full of inspiring messages and jokes to those too far for her to visit.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters; Betsy, Margaret, and Rose Anne, and her brother, John. She is survived by her sister, Kathy; her brother, Charles; her husband of 59 years, Dennis; her children, Brian, and Lee, Lee’s wife and Mary’s “beloved daughter-in-law”, Jennifer (Diaz), and her “precious grandchildren”, Lance and Paul.