LONGTIME SEMO SUPPORTER ALEEN WEHKING DEAD AT 87

Aleen Vogel Wehking, an ardent supporter of Southeast Missouri State University, died Monday at her Cape Girardeau home. She was 87.

Wehking was a Southeast cheerleader with the Tomahawks pep squad in the 1920s and never stopped cheering for her alma mater.

Wehking never had children, but she often referred to the university as "her baby." She regularly attended Southeast football and basketball games.

She was one of the university's major financial benefactors and endowed a number of scholarships. In 1987, the school honored her by naming the alumni center after her.

"She lived and breathed Southeast Missouri State University from the time she was the first president of the Tomahawks until the day she died," said Jane Stacy, alumni services director.

"She thought the university was something special," Stacy said. "She never let down her zest for living."

Stacy said Wehking knew every secretary at the alumni center. "We became her children," Stacy said.

A friend, Grace Hoover, said Wehking, who had a ready smile for everyone, never gave up on life.

"Her eyes were always just snapping with interest about what was going on around her," Hoover said.

Wehking was born April 22, 1908. As a child, the Southeast campus was her playground, and she knew many of the professors and students.

She enrolled in 1925 and promptly became the first president of the newly formed Tomahawks pep squad.

The squad encouraged enthusiasm in the stands with special renditions of songs like "Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here," and "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Hometown Tonight."

Health problems forced her to withdraw from school for a time, but she later returned to school and graduated in 1932.

Wehking taught briefly at Steele. In 1935, she joined a business venture, the Coop Drug store in Cape Girardeau. A year later, she sold her interest in the firm to her partners.

She married Walter John Wehking on Nov. 10, 1936. He died in 1972. At the time of his death, he was office manager for Paramount Liquor Co.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Ford & Sons Funeral Home.