Buresh, Victor Joseph 1918 - 2013

BURESH, BERAN, KNUDSON, CREAMER, SNYDER

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 8/29/2013 at 14:55:54

Victor Joseph Buresh was born October 28, 1918, the fourth child of Godfrey and Anna Buresh. George (Molly) Buresh, Elizabeth (John) Beran and Libbie Buresh were his older siblings. Victor was born on the family farm in Howard County in a small house that later became the granary when the family built their new, square, modern farm house. He graduated from the 8th grade and started farming with his father soon after. The Buresh farm became an Iowa Century Farm in 2003. Victor was baptized, confirmed and was a member of the Saratoga Presbyterian Church where he was a member all his life. In 1941 he met the love of his life, Doris Alpha Knudson when she was working at Kakac’s General Store in the village of Saratoga. He asked her out on a dare, and the two soon became an item and were united in marriage on the Buresh farm on October 18, 1942. For the first years of their marriage, Vic and Doris lived with his parents and farmed with them. To this union were born four children, a son, Richard in 1944, daughter Rosalie in 1946 and son Thomas in 1950. In 1968 they adopted another daughter, Dawn to complete the family. Vic and Doris farmed until 1977 when they retired and moved to Saratoga. Vic and Doris were very conservation minded and planted hundreds of trees on their farm and also had two ponds dug to support the wildlife that they dearly loved. In 1997 they were the recipients of the Howard County Conservation Award. In the fall of 2011 they moved to the Cresco Assisted Living Center to make their home and meet more new friends there. Victor hunted nearly all his life, from pheasant, to fox, deer and turkey and he also enjoyed going on hunting trips to Wyoming to hunt mule deer and antelope. After Vic retired he picked up the hobby of wood-working. He and Doris crafted a variety of items including plant stands, wall shelves, plant hangars, picture frames and with his scroll saw he produced countless Christmas ornaments, commemorative anniversary hearts, clocks and more. When Vic wasn’t hunting or wood-working, he was working on guns, a skill that he taught himself to repair his own guns, reload shells and then opened Vic’s Gun Shop to repair and sell guns to hunters in the surrounding area. Victor loved to celebrate life milestones with family and friends. Starting with their 25th Anniversary, they also celebrated their 40th, 50th, 60th, 65th and 70th anniversaries, which many times happened to coincide with one of their fall birthdays as well. If any of their friends or relatives were celebrating an occasion, they did their best to attend those too. For many years the family vacation was a trip north to Minnesota to Blanche Lake. They made many memories fishing, boating and spending time with their family and friends. After Vic and Doris retired to their acreage in Saratoga they become avid players of 500 and “The Dice Game.” Victor loved to win at cards and would always be ready to make the last bid so the opponents wouldn’t take the game. More times than not, he made the bid and won the game too. Who knows how many times those six dice bounced on their kitchen table with their friends, children and grandchildren? Another favorite pastime of Victor’s was feeding and watching the birds and squirrels in their back yard. They went through literally hundreds of pounds of sunflower seed and corn and they were rewarded with a backyard sanctuary full of birds of all kinds, right outside their kitchen window. Victor was always a tinkerer and inventor. Whatever device or piece of equipment he was using, he could always come up with some way to fix it or to make it better and often came up with some original ideas that he really should have gotten a patent for. If only he could have invented a new back for himself, it would have saved a lot of aches and pains for him. 1918 to the present has been a lot of years, a lot of memories too numerous to mention here. Victor lived a simple life, worked hard and enjoyed it all. His Bible is tattered from hours of reading and we know he is with his Lord and Savior, free from pain and with his loved ones who have gone before him. Victor is survived by Doris, his wife of 70 years, their children Richard (Kathy) Buresh, Mission, TX; Rosalie (Bill) Creamer, Kissimmee, FL; Tom (Connie) Buresh, Waukon, IA and Dawn (John) Snyder, Shamrock, TX; 16 Grandchildren, 14 Great-grandchildren and many cousins, nieces and nephews. We know Victor is smiling down on us today and saying the phrase he always left us with, “God Bless You.”

Visitation:
5:00 pm to 8:30 pm on Thursday, August 29, 2013 At Lindstrom Funeral Home in Cresco, and at the church from 10 a.m. until time of services.

Service:
11:00 am on Friday, August 30, 2013 At Saratoga Presbyterian Church

Burial at Saratoga Cemetery

Source: Lindstrom Funeral Home database

Howard Obituaries maintained by Constance McDaniel Hall.
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