Funeral services for Juel Gary Kopperud, age 79, will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at Cross of Glory Lutheran Church, Hartland, MN. Rev. Mark Hillmer will officiate. Interment will be at the Hartland Cemetery. Military honors will be accorded by local servicemen’s organizations, VFW and American Legion. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Monday, April 13 at Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Home and one hour prior to the service at the church. Online condolences are welcome at www.bayviewfuneral.com.

Juel died Friday, April 10, 2015 at the New Richland Care Center.  

The memorial service for Robert Joseph Blazek will be 11 a.m. Saturday, April 18, 2015, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 104 1st Street SE in Hayfield, MN with Reverend Paul Hauschild officiating. Visitation will be from 9-11 a.m. at the church.

Robert Joseph Blazek, 73, passed away on April 8, 2015, at Mayo Clinic Hospital, St. Mary's Campus, Rochester, MN.

Robert was born on January 3, 1942, the son of Joseph A. and Violet A. (Jorgensen) Blazek in Steele County, MN. Robert graduated from Ellendale High School in 1960. He began working at IBM in Rochester and worked for over 30 years. On June 20, 1964, he married Antonia Cruz, and two children were born from this marriage. They were later divorced. On August 19, 1977, he married Mary Grunwald at her grandmother's house in Ellendale, MN.

The NRHEG girls’ track and field team opened the 2015 season with the NRHEG Invitational Tuesday, March 30.

“It was nice weather for our first meet,” said coach Duey Ferber. “We saw some good performances, especially from our younger girls.”

Maple River won with 63 points. The Panthers totaled 63, Medford 53.

The Panthers had three firsts: Hailey Schuller, 110-meter high hurdles, 17.73 seconds; Maddie Wagner, high jump, 5-0; and the 4x200 relay team of Schuller, Erin VanWilgen, Maddie Wagner and Marnie Wagner, 1:56.95.

The NRHEG boys’ track and field team got the season off and running in beautiful weather with the NRHEG Invitational Tuesday, March 31. Maple River won the three-team meet with 77.5 points. The Panthers had 65.5, Medford 42.

The Panthers claimed eight first places, including three relays.

John Cole, Josh Fleming, Brenden McMann and Tyler Schlaak won the 4x800-meter relay in 9:09.1, and combined for first in the 4x400 in 4:01. Nathan Krause, Zach Mely, Aaron Seath and Noah Sletten teamed for first in the 4x200 with a time of 1:40.53.

Schlaak won two individual events, the 800 in 2:12.88 and the triple jump at 36-2. Other individual firsts were by Cole, 3200, 11:03.88; Todd Erickson, discus, 127-2; and Agro Gushwa, high jump, 5-2.

Autumn is beautiful with all its' wonderful colors; the winter now is spectacular, but sometimes we get a little bit too much, but nothing matches the first new green sprouts of spring.

As spring starts to "spring" with green it brings back many beautiful sites to see and enjoy. Maybe nonsense, but memorable, and my mind runs on to so many great things. It is always enjoyable seeing that first robin on the lawn, flowers peaking through the ground, as well as once again being able to enjoy listening to the birds sing.

I have always enjoyed seeing the loons, ducks and geese as they frequent the area lakes once the ice has disappeared before they are disturbed by all the boats and abundance of people when summer arrives. These great creatures are so grand to see floating on the area lakes and yet sometimes their walking abilities remind us what some people experience if they have problems with their legs.

I never get over the excitement of seeing all the plants emerge from their winter sleep. The tulips under the front window of my home are starting to peek through the ground and my mother came out of her home one day and noticed that her rhubarb had also started peeking through the ground. Before long the leaves on the trees will be popping out too. Tell me there isn't a God.

Many of the area farmers are beginning to prepare their machinery for the spring planting season.  Before long we will see the big tractors traveling down the fields preparing the soil and then planting the seed. I always enjoying seeing the first rows of beans and corn appeared in the fields as I drive by the fields.

Now at Easter time it is always a blessing to see the symbolic resurrection of seeing things become alive again.

Glen Hanson, a former Geneva resident, always planted potatoes on Good Friday. My Grandpa and Grandma Schember had a huge garden, bountiful and beautiful. Grandpa had potatoes that were as pretty as a picture and onions so large he sold many of them to the "Horn Inn" in New Richland (now The Willows Restaurant & Lounge) so they could be made into delicious onion rings. Speaking of onion rings and the Horn Inn, my dad and Grandpa Schember were so very proud of that place because they had helped construct it. It was a dream of a place before its time. 

My Grandpa Schember worked for them and now their daughter, Pam, and her husband are in the food business as star volunteers. They work hard for the local food shelf and for others. My folks thought, and mom still does think so much of the family. Pam’s mother was such a great friend, kind and caring and was like a free spirited angel, always there with a greeting.

Peter Cottontail hopped back into our area this past week and I hope that everyone had a very blessed Easter holiday. Once again the First Baptist Church in Clarks Grove hosted their annul Community Eggstravaganza and children came from far and wide with their Easter baskets. The kids were able to enjoy a great breakfast, play many different games, including tossing a few bean bags, went fishing and even fed peanuts to the elephant, to name a few.

The kids who attended were divided into age groups for the egg hunt and they were really excited to find the Easter eggs that were on the lawn at the church. Many of them went home with some great prizes.

When my kids were little we didn't really have that much Easter stuff. So what did we do? When the kids were busy searching for eggs and other things during our family’s yearly Easter Egg Hunt in front of the house we recycled some things and hid them in the back of the house and vise versa. The kids didn't care. It was just really the fun of the hunt that they were really interested in.

And what would Easter be if you didn't color a few eggs? That yearly event was an adventure too. Over the years we learned a few tricks, including blowing out the inside of some of the eggs so we didn't wind up with so many hard boiled eggs. As the insides of the eggs squirted out into the bowl the kids thought, “yuck.” Needless to say we prepared and ate the eggs one way or another for several days after the Easter holiday had passed. We used the "blown out eggs" to make a cake, pancakes or French toast, and of course we also scrambled them too. We later used the hard boiled colored eggs to make egg salad sandwiches or deviled eggs.

With little girls in the house, Easter dresses were a must and were made by hand until the year my Grandmother Hanson was sick and there wasn't time to get the job done. We had to go to town shopping for Easter dresses instead and we were able to find some great looking two-piece outfits at Wallace's in Albert Lea and the girls were delighted.  Store bought! The fact that they were a little too big didn't seem to matter. We had to have the skirts rolled and pinned for a while until they grew some. It was something they hadn't experienced before.

Churches at Easter time are so beautiful during holiday too with all the wonderful Easter Lilies gracing the sanctuary. And of course there is always a great deal of wonderful music to enjoy. Many of the area churches also hold Easter breakfasts too, following the sunrise services.

I hope you had a very blessed Easter and enjoy seeing spring arrive.

Some of our Star Eagle readers have commented they like to read about events such as family and school reunions, birthdays and anniversaries, and birth and wedding announcements. In order to read about these important things we need our faithful readers to pass along the information to us.  Also if you have an idea for a story that you think would be of interest to our readers, please contact me. 

If you have birthdays and anniversaries you would like include, or news to share please contact me via e-mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; by postal mail, P.O. Box 192, Geneva, MN 56035 or telephone, 507-256-4405.

This week’s birthdays and anniversaries include:

• Thursday, April 9th: Becky Larson, Justin Tufte, June Lageson, Abby Paige Christopherson, Raianna Thomas, Jim Kaplan, Kiersten Knudson, Mike Nechanicky, Larry Sarver, Clarice McGrath, Tiffany Chrz, Joe & Mandy Moon

• Friday, April 10th: Kimberly Luhring, Sara Bergerson, Sarah Skroch, Sophia Rose Christensen, Luke David Olson, Daniel Gould, Liz Reichl, Harold Pitcock, Arlen & Coleen Brekke, Lawrence & Dorothy Sprankle

• Saturday, April 11th: Barb Marcus, Ruth Benson, Lori Dobberstein Sodeman, Jessica Dobberstein, Jacob Alan Reynolds, Dan Nelson, Darrin Thostenson, Theresa Bartsch, James Thompson

• Sunday, April 12th: Tiegen Kay Richards, her 7th; Rory Ann Bickler, Guy Cromwell, Charise Oland, Cheryl Thompson, Deb Wilking, Allen & Betty Brandt, Roger & Reta Draayer

• Monday, April 13th: Victor Mrotz, Jamie Johnson, Andrea Casteron Malo, Ava Raye Chapman, her 6th; David Clausen, Margie Nesdahl, Pat O'Conner, Jason Sullivan, Roxie Ritz Simmons, Megan Benson, Charlotte Miller, Curtis Klecker, Shannon & Jason Peterson, their 10th

• Tuesday, April 14th: Dakota Clark, Anna Elizabeth Bailey, Tina Hagen, Jason Vogt, Rachel Oswald, Marcia Hemingway Jensen, David Jensen, Ron Huber, Butch & Gail Ottesen

• Wednesday, April 15th: Mason Robert Klemmensen, his 7th; Terry Jensen, Barry Troe, James Benson, Sarah Christine George, Cayla Conroy

• Thursday, April 16th: Eddie & Arlene Miller, their 63rd; Terry & Cindy Vaith their 31st

• Friday, April 17th: Mike Nesdahl, Suzanne Marcus Cory, Matthew Olson, Diane Van Riper, Kathy Paulsen, Bethany & Terry Mikesell, Jerry & Mary Peterson

• Saturday, April 18th: Ellen Hanson, Marge Leak, Peggy Wallerich, Tim Stollard, Tom Kaphers, Rebecca Lyn Peterson, her 13th; Brian Olson, Danielle Zamora, Levi Michael Den Herder, his 9th

Wishing you every joy as you celebrate your special day!

This past Wednesday evening we had a much needed thunderstorm that brought us some moisture and gave us the fresh start that I look forward to starting each spring with. Although we have had spring on the calendar for a few weeks, the weather hasn’t been totally spring-like. As I awoke the next morning after that nice rain everything seemed to be fresh and clean. There is a certain smell in the air that goes along with that first spring thunderstorm which signals a new beginning for the year.

The birds even seem to have a little extra chirp as they go about their daily nest building activities. As a kid I especially loved the sound of the red winged blackbirds as they busied themselves building their nests in the nearby slough. Once the snow had melted and the running water had subsided to a normal flow, I would spend many hours at the bridge, which for the spring and most of the summer seemed like a second home to me. I would watch and listen for the first sign of those blackbirds because I knew that with their arrival spring was officially underway.

For some reason the sound of a normal blackbird never seemed to do anything for me. If I were to venture a guess it would be a numbers thing not to mention the fact that their sound is actually rather annoying. As an adult who likes to feed birds, the blackbirds and starlings are kind of a nuisance because they can clean out a feeder faster than a squirrel on steroids.

I have a few feeders up at our cabin and I found that I eventually had to put them on a wire or line strung between trees to keep the other critters from cleaning them out. Last year I thought that I had the feeder thing figured out at the cabin and I had even decided to leave one feeder, which was shaped like a barn, for the chipmunks to enjoy. Unfortunately that feeder was within reach of a family of raccoons which visited one night and totally destroyed it. When I awoke that next morning to the sight of what was left of that feeder I was not a happy camper. Over the years the raccoons and I have had our differences, but this meant war and putting all feeders out of reach was the only way I was going to come close to winning the battle.

I haven’t been up to the cabin since last fall but I am planning on heading up there in the not too distant future. The emergence of some real spring-like weather has given me the bug to head north and open up the cabin. To some, opening the cabin involves hooking up water lines and other such things, but opening our cabin involves mostly cleaning and restocking the canned goods. It’s a little different and a little easier when you have no running water. To some that may be a great inconvenience, but to us it’s just part of the package. We’ve come a long way from the day that we cut down the first tree to make a driveway into the land and it’s been a fun family venture ever since.

I don’t believe there is a more relaxing time than when a person is in the woods enjoying nature in all of its beauty. A few years ago as I went north to open the cabin and check to see if there were any trees down I called an old service buddy, Mike who lives in Outing. He drove up the next day and although the weather wasn’t the best we sat in the cabin and caught up on what had been going on in our lives. As we sat there enjoying the warmth of the fire I noticed this red squirrel busily running back and forth from one woodpile to another. All at once the squirrel stopped in its tracks and stood perfectly still under a pile of small branches. I couldn’t figure out what it was up to until I spotted the red tailed hawk sitting in a tree just a short distance from the two woodpiles. The hawk was obviously sizing up little Red for its afternoon meal. The squirrel’s survival instincts must have been pretty sharp because it never moved or even twitched until the hawk tired of the waiting game and flew on. To this day I still consider myself lucky to have been able to observe first hand, how an animal survives an encounter with a natural predator in the wild.

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Muskie Talk News

The next meeting of Southern Crossroads Chapter of Muskies Inc. will meet Wednesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. at the Eagles Club in Owatonna.

Our speaker will be Bob Schmitt of Just Encase Tackle Boxes. Hear updates, also, door prizes, raffle and plenty of muskie talk. Need not be a member to attend. Bring a friend and help improve muskie fishing in Southern Minnesota. See you at Minnesota Muskie Expo, April 10, 11, 12, At Concordia Univ., Gangelhoff Center, 235 Hamline St. N, St. Paul.

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Until next time, the smell of spring is in the air and it’s a great time to take in all the wonders that nature has to offer.

Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers because they are the reason we are able to enjoy all the freedoms that we have today.

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I loved seeing so many new people at bingo this week.

There were many first-timers.

Yes, I’m just sorry that so many of them had to win.

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: Why don’t they make potato chip bags that fit the contents?

The cafe chronicles

Each fellow seated at the table of infinite knowledge was perfectly capable of holding up both sides of a conversation. And they were all trying to do that. These guys knew that a good night’s sleep is essential to a good day’s loafing. The right-to-know group was meeting. Their wives called them gossips. These are people who, when you ask them how they are, they will tell you.

One fellow told me that he lived just the other side of nowhere and that old age had come at a bad time for him. He admitted, "I cheat on my diet. At my age, I need something to feel guilty about."

Cajun thrills and chills

I spoke at some things in Louisiana. They were places meant for my kind and I was having a swell time. The weather was lovely, but some of the locals thought it unseasonably cold. "This weather must be nothing to you," they said. "You’re from Minnesota. You’re used to it."

The weather meant everything to me. Weather is all that is needed to start a conversation with a stranger.

Putting the "Oh" in Ohio

I did a book signing in Columbus, Ohio. I got along fine with the day. One woman who bought a book said that she was a basketball coach who often practiced her team against six defenders. That would be a good preparation for life. We all find ourselves outnumbered.

A friend who lives in Ohio is a pilot for one of the major airlines. He flies regularly to places like London and Paris. He told me that the people were the best part of his job and that the people were the worst part of his job.

Life is a matter of getting used to things. When I was a small boy, I was given creamed asparagus on toast in the ancient belief that a cat would eat an onion if it were hungry enough. My mother creamed foods. Most creamed foods were not on a little boy’s bucket list. I whined a bit. My mother told me to eat around it. It was all I had. I’d have had to eat around everything by eating nothing.

I love asparagus today. I love people. I’m outnumbered. Everything and everyone takes some getting used to.

Memories prove that there are always boxes in the attic

It was back in the day when one of the favored jokes in my set was, "How many ears did Davy Crockett have? Three — his left ear, his right ear and his wild front ear." It was when I was trying to find something that I was good at other than annoying my family.

One of the first things that I was proficient at was putting my hand on the rabbit ears antenna of our old TV and improving the reception. I was considered a healer. Unfortunately, I couldn’t heal myself. I had a cold, but it wasn’t a malady convincing enough to allow my mother to keep me home. I went to school, a Petri dish of illness-causing organisms. I sat in class and suffered. There is no such thing as a common cold. No one with a cold calls it common. I’d perfected a vacant stare that looked as if I had a relentlessly keen interest in what the teacher was saying.

The only fly in the ointment, other than feeling miserable, was that my cold caused me to wheeze occasionally. My wheezing caught the attention of the teacher who thought I was making weird sounds intentionally.

"Do you have something that you would like to share with the rest of the class, Mr. Batt?" asked my teacher.

I replied without thinking, "My cold."

Nature notes

"Why do I see turkey vultures perched with their wings outspread?" It’s because you’re looking at them. I wish all questions were that easy to answer. This spread-winged stance is called the horaltic pose and it’s believed to dry wings, warm bodies, and bake away bacteria.

Meeting adjourned

It's a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research and study, the best advice I can give people is to be a little kinder to each other." - Aldous Huxley

Friendship is a funny thing. Like so many things in life, good friendships go through a roller coaster ride, with ups and downs and curves and nice straight paths, sometimes moving quickly and other times plodding uphill.

My best friend when I was growing up in New Ulm was Rick Jorgensen. We hit it off in middle school and spent a lot of time together over the years. We shared a passion for sports, especially baseball. Neither of us was the greatest ballplayer, but we always had fun on the diamond.

We both worked at Randall Foods in high school and headed to his folks’ place after work to watch Sportscenter or a baseball game; he had cable, something I was envious of. His dad and mom, Warren and Jolene, were always so welcoming. They’d go elsewhere so we could crash in the living room, bring us snacks, and generally create a fun atmosphere. There were any number of nice evenings that we’d all sit outside and shoot the breeze, not something that’s always comfortable with your friends’ parents, but it worked with them.

Rick used to make trips over to Winona to visit while I was in college. He hit it off with my roommates as well, and we had many good times while pursuing higher education (if that’s what you want to label some of those weekends). I’d stop by to see his folks when I was in New Ulm; they would have been upset if they knew I was in town and didn’t say hi.

As we have traveled down life’s path, Rick and I haven’t seen each other as much. Life gets busy. He lives in New Ulm, but it often seems if we’re headed there, he’s out of town. The same has gone for when he might be visiting his in-laws in Albert Lea and we’re unavailable.

Sadly, this happens to many people. You can always hear stories of good friends from school who aren’t able to keep in touch as much as they’d like. Thanks to Facebook, I can keep in contact and keep up with what’s happening with Rick, and I still consider him a dear friend.

This was all driven home when his dad passed away recently. When my mom let me know that Warren Jorgensen had died, I knew immediately that I had to make it home for the visitation, even though it meant leaving a different family function early.

I was reminded of what I wrote recently when Carol Reese died, about how her children still have never called me by my first name. The same goes for Mr. and Mrs. Jorgensen. I had such high respect for those two that even at the wake, I called Rick’s mom Mrs. Jorgensen. I don’t feel comfortable otherwise.

It’s sad when your friends’ parents die, and this brought back the flood of memories at the Jorgensen household. I remember Mr. Jorgensen with a smile and a belly laugh most of the time. He was pretty straightforward, but he’d joke around and have a good time whenever possible.

The only time I’d ever see him upset was at an athletic event. As I stood in line at the wake, I had another classmate with me, and he reminded me of Mr. Jorgensen’s displeasure at some of the officials’ and umpires’ calls over the years. We laughed about that, and so did Rick when we told him of the reminiscing. More than once over the years, Rick would shake his head in the dugout or on the bench and mutter, “Oh, Dad…”

But it’s good to see and remember those things too. We often idealize the parents of our friends and believe they have no faults. We don’t usually see that side of them, but deep down we know nobody’s perfect. Still, if you can be close to perfection, Mr. Jorgensen was that. He volunteered a lot and stayed very active as long as he could. He had a kind word for everybody (except maybe some of those umpires) and brought joy wherever he went.

The world has one less smile in it now. However, I hope to make up for that by making more of an effort to rekindle a dormant friendship with Rick and bring more joy and those great belly laughs back into our lives.

Word of the Week: This week’s word is festinate, which means to hurry or hasten, as in, “We often festinate through life and should spend more time laughing and taking in the sights.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

The Weather Eye was in “the zone” last week and the scurs breathed a sigh of relief. Will the scurs continue to enjoy success with it or be forced to put it back in the Gremlin after next week? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with an increasing chance for rain. Highs in the low 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Cloudy on Thursday with rain likely. Highs in the upper 40’s and lows in the mid-30’s. Friday, partly sunny with a good chance for snow and or rain. Highs near 50 with lows near the freezing mark. Mostly sunny Saturday with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 50’s and lows in the upper 30’s. Sunday, mostly cloudy with an increasing chance for showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Partly sunny Monday with a moderate chance for showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. Tuesday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the mid-40’s. The normal high for April 15th is 57 and the normal high is 35. We continue to gain daylight at roughly 3 minutes per day. The scurs are rummaging through their couch so they can pay their taxes. They should get a penny refund from the two dimes they found.

Temperatures continued to be relatively moderate with the exception of the 80 degree high recorded on the 2nd and 43 for a high on Friday. That’s spring in Minnesota for you. Soil conditions are dry, although they remain cool with temps in the top 2” averaging in the mid-40’s at the SROC in Waseca last week. This is evident when looking at the soils in the fields or the garden for that matter. About the only weeds germinated thus far are lambsquarters and giant ragweed. Anhydrous ammonia has been applied and some dry fertilizer has been spread as well. Someone asked me if the way to tell if it’s fit to plant was to drop your drawers and plop your rump on the ground. I responded that I sure see a lot of guys doing it so it must be. 

It has been a bit of a see saw ride so far this spring. Some get very excited when temperatures warm only to become sullen when they suddenly plummet again. No two springs are alike and it is still early. Looking back at old columns, I saw that in 2012 I planted radishes and peas on March 18th and they were up by the 23rd! Rhubarb was a foot tall that year by that time. This year, I decided to put some peas and radishes in on the 31st. Five days later, no sign that anything was coming up yet. The rhubarb was just breaking dormancy on the 31st with some plants about an inch tall this year on April 5th. Conclusion: This is not 2012.

Phenologically speaking, things are progressing slowly as well. One might’ve thought that we’d be hearing more of the chorus frogs in the pond area. Alas, the first we’ve heard from them was back on April 2nd. To date, we have yet to hear the nearly deafening noise coming from the wetland on a warm still night. There is a slow changing of the guard around the yard. A brown creeper was checking the trees out for bugs. They show up almost every spring and if you blink, you miss them. As suspected, the robins have been finding a plentiful supply of earthworms on the south facing slope. There were plenty found in the garden also. The lawn and pasture are greening up slowly although there is already enough grass on six acres to supply the three ewes without lambs. 

The last of the ewes has lambed at the ranch and not a moment too soon. Of course, it had to be a yearling that decided to not accept the lamb right away. Aside from that and a few too many bottle lambs, it has otherwise been one of the most problem-free years of lambing we have had. No real difficult births along with lambs that got up off the deck quickly, often despite the coldest weather of the winter when they were born. This is one of the reasons we raise Cheviots.

Fudgie got a long overdue brushing and celebrated by “helping” pick up sticks. She really did seem happy though and her coat for a 12-year-old dog is just beautiful, almost glowing in the sun. Somehow the sticks tend to move out of the piles they were raked into however. One thing about Border Collies, they are always right on top of things, literally. Trying to bust up some root masses from last year’s planters I had to shoo Ruby away so I didn’t take her front paws off with the shovel. She’s much safer barking at the apple trees while watching The Wizard of Oz. Oh well, since we’re done moving ewes with lambs the dogs have to have something to do. Keeps them off the streets or at least out of the road I guess. 

Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer made a visit last week and we discussed the cosmos amongst other things. April is an interesting month in the heavens. Some may wonder why we missed the lunar eclipse last week. It was primarily because it really wasn’t a full eclipse here. By the time most were up looking at it, the moon was already below the horizon. Venus continues its yellow “mini-moon” status, low in the western sky at 10 p.m. Jupiter is overhead in the southern sky at that same hour. Saturn rises in the east about midnight, becoming earlier each night so it rises by about 9:30 by the end of the month. The Big Dipper is nearly upside down, hopefully dumping out some needed precipitation in a timely fashion. The noted Swedish astronomer and I concurred that stargazing goes much faster when it’s cloudy out.

See you next week…real good then.

Funeral services for Helen M. Sawyer will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at First Lutheran Church in Ellendale, MN. Reverend Richard Sliper will officiate. Visitation will be held 5-8 p.m. Monday, April 6, 2015 at First Lutheran Church in Ellendale as well as one hour prior to the service. Interment will be in First Lutheran Cemetery in rural Ellendale.

Helen M. Sawyer, age 86, of Ellendale passed away Friday, April 3, 2015 at the New Richland Care Center. Helen was born on December 2, 1928 in Kenyon, MN to her parents, Selma and Palmer Berg. She left the Kenyon area at age 7 and moved to the community of Ellendale, MN, where she attended school until graduation. She became a member of First Lutheran Church in Ellendale.