Elizabeth "Bookie" Hottensen Slugg
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Elizabeth ("Bookie") Hottensen Slugg, 96, died peacefully on February 19, 2021 at her home in Mequon, Wisconsin. Born January 20, 1925, her 96-year life spanned several wars and profound changes in societal and social norms. Throughout her life she adapted, thrived on change, and affected everyone with her capacity for unconditional love and empathy. She is survived by her four children?Dorothy Hottensen, Brooklyn; Robert Hottensen Jr, Aiken, SC; William, ("Sandy"), Milwaukee; and Judy Hottensen, New York. She had nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Both her husbands predeceased her. Robert Hottensen, Sr. died in 1970, and Hugh Slugg died in 2009.
Bookie grew up in Milwaukee, the daughter of Edmund Shea, a prominent attorney and Dorothy Thigpen, a southerner with roots in Alabama and Charleston. Her parents' courtship was the subject of Mingled Souls, a book written by her sister, Sheila Harvey Tanzer. The Sheas took up residence at "White Woods" in Fox Point, where Bookie lived with her three siblings, Charles Shea (deceased 1998), Sheila, Hanover NH; and Wendy Randall, Milwaukee. Bookie was a graduate of Downer Seminary and Northwestern University.
In 1948 Bookie married Robert Hottensen ("Hotts") and they raised their four children in Fox Point, near her childhood home. Following Hotts's death, she married Hugh Slugg in 1972. Over the course of her life, Bookie was a member of The Town Club, The Milwaukee Country Club, The Green Tree Garden Club, Collector's Corner, The Antiquarian Society, The Women's Club of Wisconsin, and The Colonial Dames. In college, she was Northwestern University's Homecoming Queen and was a member of Delta Gamma sorority.
A lifelong Catholic and a member of both St Eugene's and St Monica's parish in Milwaukee, her faith was extremely important throughout her life and clearly accounted for her capacity for love and resilience in her daily life. Bookie's life will be celebrated in June in Milwaukee at St Monica's. She will be buried at Holy Cross cemetery.
Throughout her life Bookie was an enthusiastic gardener, a passion she shared with her mother. She was a prominent member of The Green Tree Garden Club of Milwaukee. The family requests that donations and remembrances be directed there: www.greentreegardenclub.com
Feerick Funeral Home of Milwaukee, WI serving the family 414-962-8383