Oak Creek Honors Life of Former City Clerk

LaVerne Gutknecht was one of several officials who fought off an annexation attempt and helped incorporate Oak Creek.

The Oak Creek Common Council on Tuesday honored the life of former city clerk LaVerne Gutknecht, who was instrumental in the city's founding and served Oak Creek for 33 years. Gutknecht, 86, died Nov. 23. She and six others fought off Milwaukee's annexation attempt in 1955 by going into hiding so that Milwaukee officials couldn't serve them legal papers. That allowed Oak Creek residents to vote on a referendum, which passed overwhelmingly and allowed the town of Oak Creek to incorporate as a city. "It was an unusual effort," said City Attorney Larry Haskin, who worked with Gutknecht when he started his tenure in 1985. Haskin remembered Gutknecht as a "wonderful, kind, gracious person" during Tuesday night's council meeting. With a few …

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Editor's Notebook

Gutknecht Helped Oak Creek Fight Milwaukee, Become a City

LaVerne Gutknecht, who died last week at the age of 86, was instrumental in fighting off Milwaukee's annexation attempt and incorporating Oak Creek as a city.

You can't talk about how Oak Creek was born without talking about LaVerne Gutknecht. It was Gutknecht and six others who were at the center of a now-legendary story of Oak Creek's founding: they went into hiding to stave off Milwaukee's annexation attempt and allow Town of Oak Creek residents to vote on incorporating. Because of their efforts, Oak Creek officially became a city in 1955. Gutknecht, 86, died Nov. 23. A visitation will be held from 4-7 p.m. Friday at Heritage Funeral Homes, 9200 S. 27th St. Gutknecht was the last surviving member of the group that went on "vacation," as a newspaper story put it, and the story deserves a re-telling here. The kerfuffle started when Wisconsin Electric decided to build a new power plant in Oak …

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