Sergeant Edward B. Kraus


Edward Kraus July 25, 1961

Army
Enlisted July 25, 1918
Discharged July 9, 1919
Service Number 3810901
Unit C O Company Headquarters, Battalion, GHQ, ASC

Edward B "Ed" Kraus
Born October 9, 1894 Manning
Died November 15, 1962 Cass County, North Dakota
Buried Riverside Cemetery, Fargo, North Dakota
Son of Berthold and Marie (Langer) Kraus
Wife Hildegarde M. (Usselman) Kraus
Born August 21, 1901 in South Dakota
Died January 15, 1995 in Cass County, North Dakota
Buried Riverside Cemetery, Fargo, North Dakota

Hildegarde Kraus grew up at Fort Rice and Mandan, North Dakota, graduating from Mandan High School. She then came to Fargo, North Dakota, to take an accounting course, and very quickly became involved with the music scene in Fargo. This was during the heyday of silent motion pictures and Hildegarde found work as a house organist at the Orpheum, State, and Fargo Theatres. At that time she also became employed as staff organist at WDAY Studio. She had studied theatre organ under Eddie Dunstedter in Minneapolis and also played organ at the state theatre there. In Fargo, she played on Barton, Morton, and Wurlitzer theatre pipe organs, and the last remaining of these is the Fargo Theatre Wurlitzer Organ. Hildegarde worked for WDAY for 28 years, retiring around 1955.

She married the Fargo Theatre manager, Ed Kraus, who disliked all things organ and by 1948, the Fargo Theatre Wurlitzer fell silent and she did not play it again until it was restored beginning in 1973. In 1965, Hildegarde became a charter member of the Red River Theatre Organ Society, and her fellow members convinced her to come out of retirement and she scored several more silent films during the 1970s and 1980s. Throughout her years in the theatre industry, she met many celebrities who came to the Fargo. She was also organist of St. John Lutheran Church in Fargo.

She later passed away from demenita/Alzheimer's disease and was able to play proficiently even during the progression of the disease. She is still revered today by those who knew her as "The Incomparable Hildegarde" and she and Ed have a commemorative sidewalk square on Broadway in Fargo.