Friday, June 24, 2016 6:52 pm
Ethel Marie Funke passed away June 17, 2016, at the Patty Elwood Center in Cresco. A Mass of Christian Burial is at 11 a.m. Thursday, June 23, at Notre Dame Parish in Cresco. Burial is in Calvary Cemetery, Cresco. Visitation is from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, at Hindt-Hudek Funeral Home, with a scripture service at 7 p.m. Visitation continues an hour prior to the time of service Thursday, at the church.
Ethel was born April 13, 1918, to Mathias and Catherine Hageman Drilling. Ethel and her older brother attended school at St Joseph Grade School and Ethel attend Assumption High School. Ethel remembered going to school with their horse “Maggy” and a top covered buggy, with sandwiches and a bag of oats for “Maggy.” Ethel married Hugo Funke Sept. 9, 1940, at St. Joseph’s Church in Cresco. Ethel and Hugo farmed five miles north of Cresco with their seven children. After Hugo’s death in 1966, Ethel and her three youngest daughters moved into Cresco where she worked 16 years at the hospital as an aide. After she retired from the hospital, she did some private care. Ethel enjoyed gardening, flowers, sewing and quilting and being with her family.
Surviving Ethel are one son, Neil (Michelle) of Cresco; Joyce Miller of Rochester; Janet Funke of San Diego, Calif.; Joan (Ivan) Permann of American Falls, Idaho; Betty Funke of Denver, Colo.; Norma (Bruce) Paulsen of Glenville, Minn.; and daughter-in-law Ruth Funke of Decorah. Ethel had 13 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren, with numerous nieces and nephews.
Preceding her in death were her parents; husband, Hugo; son, Kenneth; and brother, Urban (Mickie) Drilling.
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