Nancy Ann Kamke, of Kelly Lake, died Dec. 26, 2025.
Nancy was born in Milwaukee on March 21, 1932, the daughter of J. Paul and Evelyn (Kappen) Arnold. She attended schools in Milwaukee, graduating from Washington High School in 1950. She did teacher training for two years at Marinette County Normal. She got a teaching position at Winesville School, Porterfield, Wisconsin, teaching all eight grades.
Nancy loved living at Kelly Lake with her mother and sisters for the summers. Her dad drove back and forth from Milwaukee on the weekends. She loved swimming, rollerskating, being with friends and baseball. She attended games of the Kelly Lake team on Sundays. Bill played on the team, and that is where they met. They were married June 26, 1954.
They moved to Massillon, Ohio, in September where Bill was an intern at St. James Lutheran Church. Nancy got a job teaching third grade in the Massillon schools. Their daughter, Ann Laurie, was born June 24, 1955. They moved to Columbus, Ohio, for a year where Bill graduated from Trinity Lutheran Seminary. They received a call to serve at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Toeterville, Iowa, and they began there in July 1956.
William Jr. was born there in 1957, Timothy in 1959, and they adopted Jennifer in 1967 when she was 6 weeks old. They still have some close friends there and go back to visit.
In 1972, they received a call to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Gillett. With the children in school, Nancy got a teaching position on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, teaching a combination second and third grades. After that, she did substitute teaching. When Bill accepted the position of Protestant chaplain at St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, they bought a house and moved there.
They built a house on Kelly Lake and moved there in 1996. Nancy loved riding her bicycle around the lake, doing 50 miles a day and 5,000 miles a summer. She became known as the Kelly Lake Bike Lady. She did that for 21 years. She organized triathlons and participated in them for 20 years. Bill became part-time pastor at Wequiock Presbyterian Church Green Bay, so Nancy went there and found the people warm and accepting.
Survivors include her husband of 71 and a half years, Bill; children, Ann Kozicki, William Kamke Jr., Timothy (Peggy) Kamke and Jennifer Kamke; grandchildren, Lauren, Peter, Emily, Kimberly and Kristin; great-grandchildren, whom she lovingly referred to as “The Greats,” Lily, Charlie, Nora, Mark and Ephraim; sister, Donna; and other extended family members.
She is preceded in death by her parents; brother, Dennis; sisters, Judy and Bonnie; sisters-in-law, Winona and Mavis.
Visitation will be held on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, from 4-7 p.m. at Jones Funeral Service in Oconto Falls. Visitation will continue after 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 30, at Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church in Suring. A funeral will begin at the church at 10 a.m. with Pastor Beth Macha and David Rasmussen officiating. Burial will follow at Hickory Cemetery.
