Elaine Veit Scholarship

Elaine Elsie Veit was born on March 15, 1940 to John W. and Elsie (Wotschke) Veit in Redwood Falls, MN. Elaine lived in many towns including Seaforth, Milroy, Sebeka, Brainerd, and Menahga. Elaine graduated from the Brainerd High School in 1957 with having the honor of being the Valedictorian of her class. After her graduation, she furthered her knowledge and attended the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in teaching in 1961. Being an English teacher brought great joy to Elaine as she always encouraged her students to try their best and to find a career that would be like not having to go to work but rather a hobby. During her teaching years between Lake Benton, Bertha-Hewitt and Sebeka she directed many class plays, coached the speech teams, wrote many poems and short stories. Retiring from teaching in 1991 after more than 30 years did not stop Elaine from teaching as she loved to learn and share her wisdom with others.
Loving to travel and to learn all she could about anything and everything was Elaine. She had a very sharp mind and it was evidenced by her creative/descriptive writing and speaking to others about what she found and learned to be of interest to her. In addition, Elaine made sure to include all her newfound knowledge by making many scrapbooks of her favorite things. She included pictures from all over the world to ones of family and friends. She enjoyed watching movies and TV, especially the Kitten Bowl. Successively, for many years, Elaine took care of her mother, Elsie, in their home in Menahga after her father passed away until Elsie needed more care.
One of the biggest and most enjoyable things that brought Elaine the greatest comfort was the love of cats. Since she was a little girl on the farm and had a pet cat, Kittykins, she was completely in love and could not imagine her life without the love of her fur babies. Elaine had the best sense of humor and would often laugh at her cats doing funny things. She loved the Peanuts characters so much that she named her cats after them.