Legacy
By the late 1930s Dr. Klehm’s lifelong stamina was yielding to the remorseless grip of cancer. She sold her practice and retired, though she still saw patients free of charge whenever she was able. She died in St. Francis Hospital on Febrary 22, 1941, just months after “Niles Center” began to sport the new name “Skokie.” She had been out of official practice for seven years before her death, but people remembered her well. In fact, when her funeral took place at the Haben Funeral Home on the afternoon of February 24, so many Niles Center folk came to pay their respects that they overflowed upstairs and right into the living quarters of the Haben family.
Sixty-three years after her death, Skokie memories still twinkle to life at the mention of Dr. Klehm. There is Louise Street which is named after her. There is the peaceful, sun-dappled St. Peter’s United Church of Christ Cemetery, where she lies together with several family members, a Memorial Day flag annually honoring her brief service in the Spanish-American War.
There are also many families who remember her last gift to her patients - an order to tear up any outstanding bills, so that nobody needed to feel that they still owed her anything...
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