Raised on a working ranch, Louise became an accomplished horsewoman and proud Texas cowgirl, a spirit she carried throughout her life. She attended St. Joseph’s School and Bandera High School, graduating in 1940. She then attended Santa Rosa Nursing School in San Antonio, graduating as a Registered Nurse in 1943.

Louise joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in September 1943 and served until February 1946, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant. She served at several U.S. posts and spent several months in Paris, France, in late 1945 supervising the treatment of servicemen being airlifted home.

Louise rejoined the Army Nurse Corps in September 1948 and served until June 1949. She was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. There she met and soon married Air Force Lieutenant Edward Koehler, a fellow Texan from Poteet. She had been assigned to help “fatten him up” so he could pass his flight physicals.

Louise returned to San Antonio in late 1949 for the birth of the couple’s first child. As Ed continued pilot training from 1950 through 1952, the family lived in Denison, Texas, where their second child was born, before returning to San Antonio to welcome their third child.

As Ed’s career as a Strategic Air Command bomber pilot advanced, Louise embraced the demands of military life, creating a warm and stable home through deployments, relocations, and the uncertainties of the Cold War years. The family lived in Rapid City, South Dakota (Ellsworth AFB), Savannah, Georgia (Hunter AFB), and Plattsburgh, New York (Plattsburgh AFB). During those years, the family welcomed two more children, one born in Georgia and one in New York.

Throughout these challenging years, Louise was the constant loving presence, caretaker, and guardian of her five children. The family’s annual trips home to Texas provided treasured opportunities to reconnect with relatives in Bandera and Poteet. Louise loved swimming in the Medina River, and she and Ed especially enjoyed dancing at the Silver Dollar.

When Ed retired from the Air Force in 1966, the family returned to Texas. After a brief stay in Austin, they settled in Beeville, where Ed took a federal civil service administrative position at Naval Air Station Chase Field. Once her youngest child was established in school, Louise returned to nursing, serving as a school nurse and working in the office of family physician Dr. John Reagan. Louise and Ed built many lasting friendships in the Beeville community while remaining closely connected to their extended family throughout South Texas and the Hill Country.

After twenty years in Beeville and more than forty years devoted to service to others, they retired to their beloved Lake LBJ home in Kingsland, Texas. Louise delighted in flower and vegetable gardening, feeding birds, fishing, sewing and spending time outdoors. Her greatest joy was time spent with family, especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom adored her for her rare ability to combine discipline with love, kindness, and encouragement. She was always keenly interested in the lives and accomplishments of her family members.

In 2011, Louise and Ed moved to Adante Independent Living in San Antonio to be closer to family. There she continued gardening and feeding birds from her patio while forming many new friendships. She enjoyed Rummikub, Skip-Bo, dominoes, and Wii bowling, and regularly excelled in Adante’s annual Senior Olympics. Blessed with remarkable health and mental sharpness, she remained active and engaged until the very end, with a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle in progress and a daily word-search always close at hand.

Throughout her long and accomplished life, Louise drew strength from her unwavering Catholic faith. Love of God and love of family were the two enduring principles that guided her life. These values shaped her service, her marriage, her motherhood, her friendships, and her generosity towards others. They remain her lasting legacy.

Louise was preceded in death by her beloved husband of seventy years, Edward; her daughter, Barbara Chu; her parents; and eleven siblings. She is survived by her daughters Shirley Koehler of San Antonio and Ramah, New Mexico and Paula Bradley and husband Keith of Lubbock; sons Edward Koehler Jr. and wife Deborah of Houston and Richard Koehler and wife Kelly of Houston; and son-in-law John Chu of Roseville, California. She is also survived by twelve grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 12, 2026, at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Bandera, preceded by the Rosary at 10:30 a.m. Interment will follow in the adjacent cemetery.

After the services, a reception will be held in the Church Hall.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (www.wildflower.org/ donate) in honor of Louise’s lifelong love of Texas wildflowers.