Sunday's Obituary - LaVonne A. (Hengel) Hirdler

Deaths

MRS. RALPH HIRDLER

FARIBAULT, Minn. — Mrs. Ralph Hirdler, 31, of here and formerly of St. Cloud, died at the Rochester, Minn., Hospital Monday.

She was born LaVonne Hengel In St. Cloud, was graduated from Cathedral High School and married Ralph Hirdler on Dec. 29, 1959, at St. Mary's Cathedral, St. Cloud. The couple lived in St. Cloud for one year and then moved here where they have lived since.

Mrs. Hirdler is survived by her husband; her mother, Mrs. Victor Hengel Sr., St. Cloud; brothers and sister, Virgil land Victor Hengel, St. Cloud; Eugene Hengel, Red Wing, Minn.; and Mrs. Marvin (La- Donna) Theisen, St. Cloud.

Funeral services are at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary's Cathedral, St. Cloud.

Friends may call at the Daniel Funeral Home after 1 p.m. Friday.

St. Mary's Cathedral parish will say the parish prayers at the funeral home at 9 p.m. Friday.

LaVonne A. Hengel was the sister of my mother-in-law.  I never met her, as she died long before I met my wife.  This obituary was in a large box of old photographs, albums and scrapbooks I recently borrowed from my in-laws for the purpose of scanning and preserving the images.  I was told for years that they really didn't have much in the way of old pictures or family information, and for years, I let it slide.  But I've recently become more active in researching the family lines, and pressed for anything they might have.  They told me about this box of stuff, but it was "buried in a closet upstairs", and inaccessible.  Finally I just said, "I have time, I'm going up to get that box from the closet."

That box turned out to be loaded with treasure!  This obit is just one small example.  There's a scrapbook almost entirely dedicated to newspaper clippings, many of them obits with data I never had, and some as interesting as a number of letters to the editor of the local paper by a family member!  I've got the pictures all scanned after my own private Scanfest, and ready to return to their owners,  but the scrapbook and an album will take me a long time to get through.  You will doubtless be seeing material from these books in the near future on this blog!

Sunday’s Obituary – if you have obituaries of family members and ancestors, consider posting them along with other information about that person as part of Sunday’s Obituary. This is an ongoing series developed by Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here.