{"id":46149,"date":"2026-09-08T09:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=46149"},"modified":"2026-09-08T09:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:26:16","slug":"john-junior-wittenberg-81-of-strasburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/46149-john-junior-wittenberg-81-of-strasburg\/","title":{"rendered":"John Junior Wittenberg (81) of Strasburg"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>John Junior Wittenberg, 81, of Strasburg, IL, was called home to be with his Lord and Savior on Sunday, September 6, 2026, at his residence.<\/p>\n<p>Funeral services will be at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, September 11, 2026, at St. Paul\u2019s Lutheran Church, Strasburg, with visitation an hour before the service. Rev. Kene Whybrew officiating. Visitation will be from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Thursday, September 10th in the church. Burial will be in St. Paul\u2019s Cemetery, Strasburg, IL. Memorials may be given to The Edie Jane Foundation or St. Paul\u2019s Lutheran Church. Arrangements are by Howe and Yockey Funeral Home in Strasburg.<\/p>\n<p>John was born on November 11, 1944, in Strasburg, IL, the son of John E. and Edith (Pfeiffer) Wittenberg. He graduated from Stewardson- Strasburg High School and later from Eastern Illinois University with a bachelor\u2019s degree in botany. He was a member of the Army National Guard. He was a lifetime farmer on the family farm in Strasburg. He married Judith \u201cJudy\u201d Ann Brumleve on August 21, 1971. They just celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary. He was a member of St. Paul\u2019s Lutheran Church of Strasburg, the Gold Wing Motorcycle Club, and The Lincoln Lander\u2019s RV Club. He was a former member on the Board of St. Anthony\u2019s Memorial Hospital, Strasburg Lion\u2019s Club, St. Paul\u2019s Lutheran Church Men\u2019s Club, and helped organize the Veteran\u2019s War Memorial in Strasburg. John was a pretty adventurous guy in his younger days. A picture of him was found in his Bible of him skydiving when he was 60! He also liked roller coasters and anything he could get in the air\u2026airplanes, gyrocopters, ultralights, helicopters, some of which he built with his own two hands. John had many interests. He had a passion for flying, farming (alongside his son, Barry), camping, boating, going on motorcycle rides with his wife, Judy, and he thoroughly enjoyed his peace and quiet. What better place to be than up in the sky seeing all of God\u2019s glory above and below or alone in the combine reaping the harvest of what they had sown. John and Judy spent their winters in Florida, which John cherished. John\u2019s peace and quiet all came to a halt when the first of his nine grandkids were born, but oh, how he loved them all and they loved him. He didn\u2019t say much, but when he did, we all would listen, and then probably laugh. He was a patient, kind, quiet and funny soul! He was a great husband, dad, papa, father-in-law and uncle who will be missed by those who knew and loved him. But as he said when he was in the hospital and had been asked (sometimes multiple times a day), \u201cDo you know where you are?\u201d He said, \u201cI am in God\u2019s hands!\u201d He knew where he was, and he knew where he was going! And what a special place that is! The best part of it all is that he is reunited with his two smallest and best angels, Edie and Andrew, who we are pretty sure were the first ones in line to give him the biggest hugs ever, right behind Jesus!<\/p>\n<p>John is survived by his wife, Judy, of Strasburg; son, John \u201cBarry\u201d (wife Courtney Hooten) Wittenberg of Strasburg; daughter, Sara (husband Kenneth) Hayes of Stewardson; 7 grandchildren: Jordan, Austin and Ellie Wittenberg and Hannah, Natalie, Samantha and Kendra Hayes; sisters-in-law; Kay Jansen of Effingham and Pat (Charlie) Brumleve of Effingham; brother-in-law; Don (Joan) Brumleve of Dieterich; and many nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n<p>John was preceded in death by his parents; father and mother-in-law; Joe and Verena Brumleve; grandchildren; Edie and Andrew Wittenberg; sister-in-law; Mary Jo Schulte; and brothers-in-law; Gene Schulte and Jim Jansen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Junior Wittenberg, 81, of Strasburg, IL, was called home to be with his Lord and Savior on Sunday, September 6, 2026, at his residence. Funeral services will be at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":46150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>John Junior Wittenberg (81) of Strasburg - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/46149-john-junior-wittenberg-81-of-strasburg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Junior Wittenberg (81) of Strasburg - 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