Willie Claus "Bill" Wellnitz 1919-1993

WELLNITZ, SAMPSON, DEWALL, LAIDIG, NELSON, PETERSHAGEN

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 3/13/2012 at 23:25:49

Willie Wellnitz
Estherville – Services for Willie (Bill) Wellnitz, 74, of Estherville, will be held Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Henry-Olson-Funeral Chapel with Pastor Glenn S. Gohmer officiating. Interment will be at East Side Cemetery, Estherville. He died Saturday, August 14, 1993 at Mercy Hospital, Des Moines.

Friends may call at Henry-Olson-Fuhrman Funeral Home in Estherville from 5-8 p.m. Monday.

He was born March 1, 1919 in Emmet County near Ringsted, the son of Paul and Margaret (DeWall) Wellnitz and the family moved to a farm north of Superior when he was two weeks old. He attended North Superior School. He farmed the family farm in Twelve Mile Lake Township and continued farming following his marriage October 25, 1945 to Betty Sampson at Petersburg, Minn. In 1954 he moved to Estherville where he was worked for Kinnard’s Dairy and later at John Morrell and Company from 1956 until retiring in 1981. He was also a substitute school bus driver several years. He was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church.

Survivors include one son, Dennis Wellnitz of Gilbert, Az.; three daughters: Mrs. Arnold (Judy) Laidig, of Alexandria, Va.; Mrs. Daryl (Nancy) Nelson, of Adel, and Susan Wellnitz, Loveland, Colo.; nine grandchildren; one brother, Paul Wellnitz of Webb; sister, Johanna Petershagen of Watertown, S.D.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Betty, who died Feb. 5, 1989; five brothers and sisters. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, August 16/18, 1993)