Anna Nefzger, age 86, formerly of Circle.

     Anna Marie Nefzger was born 86 years ago, the second child of Daniel and Olga (Neuhardt) Schlenker on their farm six miles south of Watkins, (which was five miles southwest of Brockway) Montana. She was a first-generation American as both parents were Germans born in Russia.  Her mother died when she was only three and her father then married her sister, Mary Neuhardt.  As the oldest child, she helped her dad in the fields and working outside. 
    She attended the Gackle School for eight years and Brockway High School for three years.  She then moved to Oakland, California to help her aunt and uncle in their donut shop, graduating from Castlemont High School in 1944, at the height of the war.  She then contributed to the war effort working in a fruit cannery and afterwards in a title/abstract office.
     She returned to Montana in 1949 and worked in the County Assessor’s Office until she married Donald Deane Nefzger on September 1, 1950. Together with their three children they farmed several sections of wheat, barley and safflower, and ran a few head of cattle near Vida.  She worked as hard as any man on the farm, driving tractor and truck, tossing hay bales and mowing the ten acres around the house. Her most enjoyable summer was having her “work crew” of nephews Mike Schlenker and Jim Ruckman helping her do many long-over-due projects around the farm.
      She began working at McCone Electric Cooperative in July 1960, retiring as Billing Supervisor in December 1974 when she returned to the farm.  In 1976 she was the first woman elected to McCone Electric’s board of directors where she served for 15 years, traveling to Atlanta, Portland, Las Vegas, San Diego and Anchorage.  She was an outdoors person but also enjoyed making latch-hook rugs, collecting coins and bowling.  She was a member of the Germans From Russia Historical Society and was active in politics.   
     She joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary Post 4813 in July 1949 under her father who was a World War I veteran, where she advanced through local, district and state posts, serving as State President in 1969 – 1970 and several local positions after that.  Travels with the VFW took her to Miami, Kansas City, Chicago, Seattle, Yakima, Minneapolis, Detroit, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Omaha, Dallas, Honolulu, and Washington, DC as well as nearly every town in Montana. 
      She played accordion and guitar in her younger days and piano and organ at the Congregational Church in Circle for 30 years as well as being church secretary/treasurer.  She and her sister Verna sang German songs on many occasions. 
      She moved into Wolf Point in 1986 and worked in the Admissions Office at Trinity Hospital for six years until she began working with the Green Thumb program at Northeastern Montana Job Service from which she retired in 1999.  From 2000 to 2003 she was a Retired Senior Volunteer in the VISTA Program with “America Reads” where she was a tutor at the Southside Elementary School one day a week listening to first-, second- and third-graders read.  She was Treasurer of the Wolf Point Senior Citizens and one of   five directors. 
     She moved to Glendive in October 2003 and began singing with Timeless Praise ladies group at the Glendive Evangelical Church.  She loved her yard full of trees, shrubs and flowers of all kinds and kept busy watering, raking and chasing squirrels away from her bird feeders.  In October 2008 she moved into Grandveiw Retirement Apartments and participated in most daily activities.  She especially enjoyed daily exercise, Bible study, jigsaw puzzles and coffee with her many friends. 
     Her most memorable trips were to meet 11 of her 15 first cousins in Germany in September 1993 with her daughter Deanna and then visiting Israel and the Holy Land, “walking where Jesus walked” in June 1999 with her son Darrell and his wife Patti.  She also enjoyed going to Saskatchewan  Roughriders football games with her son Dan who was taking classes at nearby Briercrest Seminary at the time. 
     On May 15, 2012 she fell while sweeping her patio at Grandview and broke both bones in her left leg, just above the ankle.  She had broken many bones in the past but after a very painful 12 weeks, her osteoporitic bones and incision still had not healed and Jesus finally took her home to be with Him. 
     She is survived by three children: Dan Nefzger of Vida, Deanna (Craig) Hostetler of Glendive, and Darrell (Patti) Nefzger of Bloomfield; one sister, Verna Bjoralt of Circle and two brothers, Leo Schlenker of Bozeman and Emil (JoAnn) Schlenker of Tacoma, Washington, brother-in-law John Ruckman of Denver, Colorado and several nieces and nephews.  She was preceeded in death by her husband Deane Nefzger on New Years Eve 2005, her parents, Dan and Olga, her step-mother Mary, her brothers Delmer and Ernest and her sister Esther (Ruckman), and two siblings Ruth and Alvin who died in infancy, sisters-in-law Inge, Elaine and Doris and brothers-in-law Orville and Howard. 
     Funeral Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 18, 2012 at the Clayton Stevensons Memorial Chapel in Circle followed by interment at the Veterans Cemetery in Circle.  Visitation will be Friday, August 17^th from 2 p.m..– 7 p.m. with the family receiving friends from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Clayton Stevenson Memorial Chapel in Circle; which originally was the Congregational Church to which she belonged for thirty years.  A light lunch will be served at the chapel after the interment by the ladies of Bethlehem and Red Top Mennonite Churches and the VFW Ladies Auxiliary. Should friends desire, condolences may be sent to the family by visiting:www.stevensonandsons.com.

Service Schedule

Visitation

2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Friday August 17, 2012

Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home

702 Lehman

Circle, MT 59215

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Family to Receive Friends

5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Friday August 17, 2012

Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home

702 Lehman

Circle, MT 59215

View map

Funeral Service

1:00 p.m.

Saturday August 18, 2012

Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home

702 Lehman

Circle, Montana 59215

View map

Visitation

10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Saturday August 18, 2012

Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home

702 Lehman

Circle, Montana 59215

View map

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