STEWARTVILLE — The funeral for Bernice E. Wittnebel, 86, will be at 1 p.m. Monday at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Garfield, Minn. Burial will be in the church cemetery.
Mrs. Wittnebel, a longtime resident of Garfield, died of natural causes Thursday (Nov. 13, 2008) at Sunrise Cottages in Rochester, where she had resided for the past four years.
Bernice Elaine Sheppard was born Feb. 18, 1922, in Badoura, Minn. She grew up on the family farm and graduated from Akeley (Minn.) High School in 1939. She then attended St. Cloud Teachers College for one year and St. Cloud School of Business for one year. On Sept. 1, 1946, she married Walter C. "Bud" Wittnebel at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Garfield. The couple made their home in Garfield, where Mrs. Wittnebel was bookkeeper at the Farmers Cooperative Elevator for 43 years. She retired in 1985.
Mr. Wittnebel died in March 2002, and she moved to Alexandria and then Stewartville to be near her daughter. She enjoyed fishing, playing piano, canning, playing cards, and telling stories of her families’ history.
Survivors include her daughter, Nancy (Paul) Pedersen of Stewartville; a son, Gregory of New Hope, Minn.; a stepdaughter, Patricia (Wayne) Nelson of Hoffman, Minn.; 13 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and a sister, Evelyn Lockman of Carlton, Minn. She was preceded in death by her husband; a son, Thomas; a grandson, David; her parents, Ralph and Nora (Westby) Sheppard; a sister, Elizabeth Werner; and an infant sister, Betty.
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Friends may call from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. today at Griffin-Gray Funeral Home in Stewartville; from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at Anderson Funeral Home in Alexandria, Minn.; and an hour before the service Monday at the church in Garfield.
The family suggests memorials to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Garfield.
