February 16, 1937 - August 24, 2022

 

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Joan Kiffmeyer, age 85 of St. Augusta passed away at her home with her loving family surrounding her on August 24, 2022. Joan was born on February 16, 1937 to Leona (Pottoff) and Vincent Kunkel in St. Cloud, MN. She grew up on the east shore of Pearl Lake on a farm and campground that her family ran. She is the oldest of 11 siblings.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 on Monday, August 29, 2022 at St. Mary’s Help of Christians Church in St. Augusta, MN. Services will be live streamed at St. Mary’s Help of Christians website.

Visitation will be held from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Sunday, August 28, 2022 at the church parish center and Monday August 29, 2022 from 9:30 to 10:30 am.

Joan married Richard Kiffmeyer of St. Augusta on June 18, 1958 and they have three wonderful children. They made their home in St. Augusta where Joan was active in the St. Mary’s Help of Christian Church where she chaired the annual garage sale for several years, volunteered to help serve funeral meals and assist with the church bazaars. Joan was a member of the Christian Mothers of St. Augusta, the St, Augusta Lions Club, St. Augusta Blizzard Busters Snowmobile Club and the Cloudy Town Sam Camping Club. She was also very active in helping create flower gardens at Kiffmeyer Park which was donated by the Kiffmeyer Family. She put in hundreds of hours to make the park beautiful for everyone to enjoy.

Joan worked at JC Penny’s part time while the kids were in school and later become District 742 Food Service secretary and eventually became the Executive Secretary in the Office of Curriculum and Instruction. She retired in 2002 after serving 26 years.

Joan loved everyone she met and made each person feel special and cared for. She especially loved her grandchildren and great grandchildren with all her heart from always having cookies in the cookie jar, making beautiful Christmas stockings and scrapbooks for each grandchild, spending hundreds of hours making it just right. She would always greet them with a huge smile, a hug and an “I love you” each time she saw one of them. Her favorite holiday was Christmas which was second to none with all the wonderful decorations, food, games and a play of the birth of Jesus along with homemade costumes for each child and beautiful music. Her favorite time at Pearl Lake was watching the amazing sunsets which never ceased to disappoint. Joan has a wonderful lake lot just below the hill where she was born and wanted to share this treasure with her family and other loved ones. Nothing made her happier than to see her grandchildren and great grandchildren playing in the water and spending quality time together. Joan also loved to travel and was fortunate enough to enjoy several special trips with either family or friends. Above all she loved her family and would do anything for them.

Joan is survived by her husband of 64 years, Richard and their three children: Pam Lahr-Kieke (Kevin) of St. Cloud, Mark (Jennifer) of St. Augusta and Lori Scheper of Monticello. She is also survived by 11 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren along with her siblings: Eugene, LeRoy (Beatrice), Robert (Eileen), Larry (Teresa), Mark (Renee), Duane (Linda), Diane Rosenow (Mike) and Deb Kunkel. She is preceded in death by her parents, Vincent and Leona, siblings: Jim and Fr. Charles OSB.

Lunch will follow the committal service. The family would like to send a special thank you to the home caregivers from Visiting Angels for the amazing love and care they gave our mom and dad the past two years. They loved Mom and Dad like family and for that, we will be forever grateful.

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