Alvin Oren ORPEN

ORPEN, TINKEY, DRURY, KALGAARDEN, KOEHLER, REININGER, VASSAR, KEEPER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/19/2010 at 15:53:15

Mason City Globe Gazette, Iowa
August 16, 1995

NORTHWOOD, IA -- Alvin O. Orpen, 73, died Sunday (Aug. 13, 1995) at Muse-Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit, Mason City. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Elk Creek Lutheran Church, rural Kensett, with the Rev. Selmer "Sam" Hernes officiating. Burial will be in Elk Creek Lutheran Church Cemetery. Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Conner Colonial Chapel, 99 11th St. S., Northwood, and will continue one hour prior to services at the church on Wednesday. The family of Alvin Oren Orpen has requested that memorial contributions be made to the Cancer Center at North Iowa Mercy Health Center or to Hospice of North Iowa in Mason City, in his memory.

Alvin Oren Orpen was born on Sept. 1, 1921 in Brookfield Township in Worth County, Iowa, the son of Bennie Orpen and Olga (nee) Kalgaarden Orpen. He was baptized and confirmed in the Creek Lutheran Church, rural Kensett, and attended and received his education in the Kensett schools. After completing his schooling, he farmed in the Kensett area for several years until his retirement in 1983. After his retirement from farming he worked at Lutheran Retirement Home in Northwood in maintenance, retiring due to ill health. He was united in marriage to Dilene Tinkey Drury on June 17, 1954, in Alexander, Iowa. He was also an honorable discharge veteran of the Army. He enjoyed collecting farm toys, riding motorcycles, going to auctions, playing cards, loved the outdoors, mowing his lawn and visiting with his many friends and family. He was a member of Elk Creek Lutheran Church, and a former member of the Elk Creek Lutheran Church Council, and was also the former janitor at the church for 13 years.

Survivors include his wife Dilene Orpen of Northwood; two daughters, Vickie Koehler and her husband, William of Belview, Neb., and Joyce Reininger and her husband, Jon of Edina, Minn.; one son, Marc Drury of Northwood; three granddaughters, Marcy Vassar and her husband, Scott of Omaha, Neb., Shannon Keeper of Destin, Fla., and Kayla Reininger of Edina, Minn.; two brothers, Glennis Orpen and his wife, Betty of Mason City, and Orvis Orpen and his wife, Diann of Northwood; as well as other relatives and friends. He will be deeply missed by his family and many friends. He was preceded in death by his parents.