Renate Knudsen

Our beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Renate Visarius Knudsen, passed away on October 12, 2018, age 85. Memorial service will be at 11am on Saturday, October 27, at First Lutheran Church in Le Sueur with a one hour visitation prior to service time. Rev. Carl Bruihler will officiate.

Renate was born in Germany and lived through WWII as a child. She came to America in her 20's where she met and married Richard I. Knudsen, a Lutheran pastor and college professor. She raised her family of 4 in a variety of locales including Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois and San Diego, California, but when they moved to the farm in the Bad Axe Valley near Genoa, Wisconsin, she found her true home. On the farm, every animal was loved and cared for like a pet. Cows, pigs, goats, chickens and ponies all had a name, but she deeply loved her dogs and was crazy about her cats! No stray was ever turned away! She drove school bus for the De Soto area school district which meant navigating the narrow twisting roads in the hilly Driftless Area with a huge 63 passenger bus. She took the responsibility of all her school children passengers very seriously. For a few years, her home was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she was the church secretary at Redeemer Lutheran Church on Glenwood Avenue in North Minneapolis. She returned to the farm in 1979 and resumed farming by raising a large herd of cattle with the help of Lyle "Peanuts" Morelli. She worked for many years as an aide at a nursing home in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She truly loved her work and cared very deeply for the people who lived there. She always marveled at her luck to be living so close to the Mighty Mississippi and one of her favorite things to do was to take drives around the beautiful bluffs and valleys of Southwestern Wisconsin. She moved to Comfort Residence in Le Sueur, Minnesota where the landscape reminded her of her home in Germany.

She is survived by her children, Ricarda "Ricci" Kelso (Frank), Julian Knudsen (Kimberly), Emily Rekstad (Kris), and Christopher Knudsen (Deb); grandchildren, Skylar Rekstad (Christy), Darek Rekstad (Tammy), Olyvia Rekstad, Erin Kelso, Muriel Kelso, Claire Kelso, Jacob Knudsen and Sophia Knudsen, and Elliana Knudsen and Abigail Knudsen; great grandchildren, Jaxon, Avery, Asher and Austin Rekstad and Avella and Bexley Rekstad, and one more baby boy due any day! Also 3 brothers in Germany and many more nieces and nephews.

We'd like to thank the staff at Comfort Residence for taking such great care of our mother in the last few years. Everyone was so caring, loving and generous and she felt that love and was happy there - Thank you! Words can't describe how much we will miss her and she touched all our lives profoundly with her love and acceptance.

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