Funeral Services for Genevieve L. (Paulson) Wayne will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, October 22, 2020, at Bonnerup Funeral Service, Albert Lea. The Reverend Randy Cirksena will officiate. Services will be livestreamed at www.bonnerupfuneralservice.com. Interment will be in Graceland Cemetery. Friends may visit with family one hour before services at the funeral home.
Genevieve was born on April 2, 1922, on a farm near Ellendale, Minnesota the daughter of Manford and Alice (Nelson) Paulson.
Genevieve loved life in her life-long community of Ellendale, Minnesota. She was a farm-girl at heart, preferring to help her dad in the barn over housework. She also shared her dad’s love of adventure and travel. A favorite memory was a 2000-mile trip out west with her family at the age of 15. After graduating high school, where she was homecoming queen, she began her career at the Ellendale bank.
Music was an integral part of her from piano lessons to playing trombone in the high school band to singing in quintets, directing the church choir and arranging inter-denominational choir Cantatas! She also served many years as the church secretary at the United Methodist Church in Ellendale.
Most importantly, in everything she did, she loved people. She saw the best in everyone and the silver lining in everything. She endured much pain and loss throughout her life, but she testified to God’s faithfulness to her through all of it.
Genevieve died on Monday, October 12, 2020 at the Woodbury Care Center in Woodbury, MN. She was 98.
Gen leaves to grieve her passing, son-in-law Fred Kycek; grandchildren: Jeffery Kycek, Jennifer (Kycek) Minder, Christopher Koppen (Cassie Kottke); the John Wayne step-family of June, Ruth, Nate and Tony; great-grandchildren: Benjamin Minder, Grace Minder, Alexander Minder, Annie Kycek, Marissa Koppen and Michelle Koppen; great-granddaughter Scarlet Koppen.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husbands Howard Koppen and John Wayne, her son Donald Koppen, daughter- in- law Shelly Koppen, daughter Marilyn (Koppen) Kycek, and sister Doris (Paulson) Hermanson.