Eugene "Gene" C. Olsen

Service Details

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, November 9, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. at the Draeger-Langendorf Funeral Home.  Friends may meet with the family at the funeral home on Thursday from 10:00a.m. until 11:00 a.m.  Private inurnment will be in West Lawn Memorial Park.

Eugene C. “Gene” Olsen, age 84, of Racine, passed away on Tuesday, October 17, 2023.

Gene was born in Racine on July 10, 1939, a son of the late Carl F. and Margaret M. (nee: Karpen) Olsen.

On October 20, 1962, at Epiphany Lutheran Church in Racine, he was united in marriage to Judy Mammenga.  Sadly, she preceded him in death on June 19, 2011.

When he was younger, Gene was athletic and spent much time outdoors.  He went out for the football team when he was in high school.   As an only child, he worked hard helping out on his parents’ Shetland Pony farm in Yorkville.  On their farm, they also grew strawberries and asparagus, which they sold from a small movable stand on Highway 20.  As an adult, the ponies became his hobby and he showed them in many places in Southern Wisconsin.  His children remember him hitching them up to his cart and running them on his practice track every night after dinner.  He amassed a pretty large collection of trophies he won with his show ponies, Torch Bearer, Applejack, and Secret Agent.  Neither can we forget that Dad built two houses; one on 53^rd Drive and the other on Ives Grove Road, both in Yorkville, the last one being the place his two children grew up in.  Both his son and daughter believe that being a carpenter was his true calling.  He also enjoyed fishing and golf, and his son went with him many times fishing in his boat for smallmouth bass at Lauderdale Lakes or playing nine holes at Brighton Dale or Ives Grove.  He always enjoyed a good time and could often be seen drinking beers with friends and family, whether at a cookout, the Biergarten, or Friday Fish Fry.  Gene liked all kinds of spectator sports, but he especially loved watching Packer Football and Marquette University Basketball.  His TV was rarely without a game on and in his later years, his cat Muffy was his constant companion, always watching TV with him.  He also enjoyed cooking, re-creating the dishes that his wife and mother had cooked for him when they were alive.  His favorites were soup dumplings and apple cake.

Gene was a longtime member of Epiphany Lutheran Church (Water of Life Church)

Gene is survived by his children, Barbara (Jeff) Schommer and Carl Olsen, and his feline companion, Muffy.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, November 9, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. at the Draeger- Langendorf Funeral Home.  Friends may meet with the family at the funeral home on Thursday from 10:00a.m. until 11:00 a.m.  Private inurnment will be in West Lawn Memorial Park.