donnelly news

Next edition Oct 17 Oct 23rd

Welcome to another edition of the Donnelly news.

The weather during the past week has been almost a repeat of last week; cloudy, cool, and wet although this week we had snow rather than rain. I cannot remember the last time we had this much snow this early in the year although thankfully it has all melted. We also had a hard freeze so the crop growing season is done. Area farmers have been making use of the periods of semi-decent weather we have had in the last week to get the crops out but there is still a lot beans left to be picked.

STJ/KONG PARISH NEWS: Advance sale tickets for the St J beef supper on Nov 10th are now on sale at the parish office or call 246-3436 or 589-3155.

Confirmation will be held on Oct 25th at Kong at 8:30 am. The Kong Thrivent chapter will host a reception for them in the church basement after services. An open house for Aryn Parker will be held at the Kong parish hall beginning at noon on the 25th. Confirmation statements will be given on Oct 21st at 7 pm at the Kong Parish hall. Everyone is welcome to attend all the confirmation events.

On Oct 11th the STJ/KONG parish voted to call Rev Judy Gellinske as the new full time pastor.

There will be no S.S. on Oct 18th due to MEA.


There are two baby showers today (Sat) the one for the expected baby of Tylise and Brock Graff will be held from 2-4 p.m. at the Morris Senior Center. Brock’s parents are Keith and Brenda Graff; grandparents are Arven and Joan Graff. Everyone welcome

The one for the expected baby of Jen and Mark Mellgren will be held from 9-11 a.m. at the First Lutheran Church (304 Elm st) Sauk Centre. Jen's parents are Jeff and Brenda Volker of Morris formerly of Donnelly.

On Thursday, October 22, at 1:30 p.m. at Faith Lutheran Church, there will be a
Fall Get -Together sponsored by the Stevens County Eldercare Coalition, featuring local jazz musicians followed by pumpkin pie and coffee. For more info call Elaine Simonds-Jaradat at 589-4394 ext 7.


Kelsy Mae Hacker was born September 2, 2009 at Glacial Ridge Hospital in Glenwood to Chris and Becky Hacker of Starbuck. Grandparents are Charlie and Deb Hacker of Hancock and Ron and Anita Henderson of Glenwood. Great grandparents are Don and Janet Hacker (she was one of Dad’s home help aides) of Hancock, Wanda LeSage of Arizona, and Jim and Pam Wevely of Florida. Great-great grandmothers are Milla LeSage (formerly of Donnelly) and Adeline Wevely, both of Morris.

Congratulations to the Morris FFA horse elevation team that finished first at the contest held at Paffrath’s stables near New London on Oct 9th. Sami Searle is a member of that team and she placed 2nd individually. They will now advance to the state contest in Apr. The Morris Area Dairy Product Evaluation CDE was held at the New London High School on Oct. 9th. The team placed 3rd and will also advance to state in April. Katlin Van Horn (Mark and Karen) and Mackenzie Smith (Mark and Pat) are members of that team.

Congratulations to Hannah and Samantha Larson (Jon and Bev) of Herman who were recently chosen to represent their classes at the homecoming court at the Herman- Norcross School


On Oct 10th I attended the visitation for Fern Pasche at the Erickson- Smith funeral home in Hoffman. Her son Dan is a good friend of mine, he and his family used to come and get apples from us for several years.


On Oct 10th a good crowd of about 150 people including several of us from the Donnelly area braved the icy roads to Mt Carmel for a special Word Alone event. Rev Dale Wolf of Atonement Lutheran church in Fargo explained what LCMC is (Lutheran Churches in Missions for Christ). There are video and audio tapes for sale of this meeting as well as the one on Sept 27th. Contact me for details about ordering them. While at the meeting I had a chance to visit a little with Rev Dave Gran who was an interim pastor at STJ/Kong about 25 years ago.

After leaving Alex I stopped in Hoffman for the one year celebration of the Main St Galleria. The next stop was at the Regional Fitness Center in Morris for their 10th aniv celebration. Several current and former Donnelly area residents were recognized as 10 yrs members. Enroute home I stopped to visit Jim and Lou Eystad in Donnelly

Oct 11th several from the area attended ‘UMM Sun” at First Lutheran in Morris. Services were led by “PK” and her student leaders from Lutheran Campus Ministries. After services we enjoyed dinner together. In the aft several Donnelly area residents were among a goodly crowd that attended the 40th anniversary open house of the Day Activity Center in Morris.

Pearl A. Anderson and I were among the many friends and relatives who attended
the visitation for Donna Enquist at the Pederson Funeral Home in Morris on Oct 12th, and also
her funeral on the 13th at the Assumption Catholic church. She was a wonderful lady and will be greatly missed by those of us who knew her.


Later I took in the Cliff Anderson sale in Morris and enroute home I stopped in to visit Denny Anderson in Donnelly.

On Oct 14th I stopped at the museum to see some of their exhibits. Tina Didreckson the curator told me that they are planning a Christmas exhibit and are looking for memorabilia from Donnelly that merchants used to give out as customer appreciation gifts at Christmastime i.e. calendars thermometers etc. If you have any please drop them off at the museum.

When I was doing some research in the genealogy room of the library in the afternoon I met a former Donnelly area resident Willie Dornquist from Red Wing so we had an opportunity to visit for a while.