The Rev. Sophia Georgette Boettcher, 82, passed away just after midday on 22nd September 2017 after a short period of hospice care in a Dallas. She was with her daughter Gretchen and trusted friend Nelda Haynes at the time. Sophia had a variety of ailments, including cancer, that may explain her death. Sophia was born in New York City in 1935, the sole child of George Katsalulis, a Greek restaurant owner, and his wife Mary Katsalulis née Schmid. She lost her parents relatively young and travelled to Texas in 1952 to marry a childhood sweetheart, Walter Boettcher, who was serving as an US Airforce mechanic in Bryan, Texas and who later served the City of Austin as a well-known engineer. Having helped raise three children, Sophia completed an English degree at the University of Texas and went on to study Theology and become an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the Wartburg Theological Seminary in Austin in 1989. ‘Pastor Sophie’, as she was known, was popular and led several rural congregations in south central Texas including Zion Lutheran in DeWitt County. Pastor Sophie and Walter retired in Rowlett, Texas where she continued guest preaching for several Lutheran churches in the area. Walter, her husband of 56 years, passed away in 2011. Sophia was blessed with, and is survived by, three children - Kim (Joe) Noonan, Gretchen (Richard) Boettcher-Harris, and Walter (Jacky) Boettcher, as well as by five grandchildren (Norah & Wendy, Erich & Nikolette, and Wolfgang). Sophia will be interred privately alongside her husband Walter at Crown Hill Memorial Park. A memorial service and reception, officiated by Pastor Paul Appel, of Joy Lutheran, and Rev. Doris Dupree Harris, of St. John's Lutheran Church of Dallas, will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, October 21, 2017 at Joy Lutheran Church, 302 N. Goliad, Rockwall, TX 75087. Thanks go to the many visitors that supported Sophia tirelessly in her final few months. Blessings to all.
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