Martin R. Bielenberg 1938 - 2014
BIELENBERG, LEGG, MALMANGER
Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/21/2014 at 22:07:14
Sioux City Journal
17 January 2014SLOAN, Iowa | Martin R. Bielenberg, 75, of Sloan died early Thursday morning, Jan. 16, 2014, at his home from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
Services will be 10:30 a.m. Monday at Skien Lutheran Church in Albaton, Iowa (rural Sloan), with the Rev. Craig Bock officiating. Burial will be in Fairview Cemetery, Albaton. Visitation will be 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, with a prayer service at 7 p.m., at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Rush Family Care Service in Onawa, Iowa.
Martin was born on Dec. 23, 1938, in Carroll, Iowa, the son of Reine and Jessie (Legg) Bielenberg. As a child the family moved to Dakota City, where he grew up and attended Heilman country school, and South Sioux City High School, graduating in 1957. He enjoyed playing football and was named the MVP his senior year. He later enjoyed watching the Cornhuskers play when his nieces and nephews attended Nebraska University. He attended Wayne State College and Morningside College, studying accounting and taxes.
He and Barbara Malmanger (whom he met at Morningside) were married on June 1, 1968, in Minnesota. They lived in South Sioux City for five years and attended Salem Lutheran Church in Dakota City, where Martin had served on the church council. Then in 1973, they moved to Sloan, and joined Skien Lutheran Church in Albaton.
Martin worked at Raskin Packing Company in Sioux City, and then for a short while sold Minnesota Mutual Insurance. He then worked for John Roost getting his start in farming (which was his dream) and farmed for him in the Whiting, Iowa, area. Later, he farmed on his own near Whiting, Sloan, Hornick, and Salix, Iowa, before retiring in 2000. He kept a semi truck and hauled liquid fertilizer for Girton Propane out of Clay Center, Kan., hauling mostly into South Dakota, and later for Bailey’s who took over the Sioux City part of the Girton company, until a heart attack forced him to retire.
Martin raised purebred Yorkshire hogs for many years, and enjoyed showing at the state fair and national shows. He served as president of the Monona County Pork Producers, president of the South Sioux City Alumni Association, and captain of the River-Cade tractor pull. He enjoyed the Friday night golf group, and traveling to different courses in the tri-state area each Friday. He enjoyed a hole-in-one at the Crofton, Neb., golf course during one of their golf outings. He also enjoyed many yearly fishing trips to Minnesota with his uncle in Brainerd, and listening to country music.
Martin enjoyed traveling to Germany to see first and second cousins and his aunt there four different times, and seeing the history of many of the European countries from Italy, Switzerland, and Austria, to Denmark and Sweden with cousins as guides, though he never mastered the German language. In his retirement years, he also enjoyed traveling to conferences with his wife (Las Vegas, San Diego, Boston, New Orleans, and Nashville), a cruise to Alaska, and very much enjoyed the last trip in September, 2013, to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to see a friend and the Smoky Mountains.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara of Sloan; sister, Marge Moos of South Sioux City; brothers, Walter "Bo" and Del Rae of Mason City, Iowa, Paul of Lincoln, Neb., and Ray and Teri of Lincoln; brother-in-law, Mark and Barb Malmanger of Swanville, Minn.; sister-in-law, Pat Malmanger of Bella Vista, Ark.; aunt, Clara Jones of Suisun, Calif.; cousins, Don and Sheryl Bielenberg of Scranton, Iowa, Janice Bielenberg of Coon Rapids, Iowa, Mary and Charles Hill of Springfield, Mo., Dave and Penny Bottorff of Brainerd, Minn., and Tina Bartels of Littleton, Colo.; many cousins in Germany; and many nieces and nephews. He also enjoyed their little black Pomeranian, Buddy, who was definitely his buddy.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Reine and Jessie Bielenberg; and an infant sister, Paula.
Pallbearers will be Jeff Bielenberg, Barry Girton, Rob Helmbrecht, Jay Miller, Rob Schmidt, and Lee Umland.
Monona Obituaries maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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