Viola Vera Berndt, 84

LaCrosse, Wis. — Viola Vera Berndt, age 84, of LaCrosse, Wis., formerly of Blue Earth, died Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008, at Clare Bridge Cottage Care Center, LaCrosse. Funeral services were held Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, at 10:30 a.m., at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Blue Earth. Rev. Dale Kohrs officiated. Burial was in St. Peters Lutheran Cemetery, Easton. Patton Funeral Home and Cremation Service was in charge of arrangements.

Viola was born May 6, 1924, in Elmore, the daughter of Albert and Elsie (Ahrens) Ehrich.

She was raised and educated in the Elmore area where she was a valedictorian of the Elmore High School class of 1942. She was married to Arnold V. Berndt on Dec. 7, 1947, at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Elmore. The couple farmed near Elmore for several years before buying a farm north of Easton in 1963. Arnold died in 1966 and Viola eventually moved to Blue Earth in 1969 and began working as a nurses aide at St. Luke’s Lutheran Care Center. She retired in 1980 and later moved to LaCrosse in 2001.

Viola is survived by her daughters Carolyn Sailor of East Grand Forks, N.D., Margaret Sims of Rapid City, S.D., Cathy Burgess of Louisville, Ky., Nancy Davenport of LaCrosse and Susan Berndt of LaCrosse, her brother Wilford Ehrich of Oregon, her sisters Ruby Hove of Minnesota, Janice Anderson of Blue Earth, Jinny Kramer of Minneapolis, her nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband – Arnold in 1966, brother-in-law Luther Hove and sister-in-law Ruth Ehrich.

Web tributes may be left at www.pattonfh.com