Memorial services for 95-year-old Esther “Buddy” Feil of Mountain Lake, Minnesota will be held on Saturday afternoon, March 29, 2014, at 1:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mountain Lake. The church is located at 1418 2nd Avenue. Interment will be in Mountain Lake City Cemetery, located at 10th Street North at Midway Road. Pastor Peter Kufahl will serve as the officiating clergy.
Sturm Funeral Home of Mountain Lake is handling the funeral arrangements.
Visitation will be at the church the day of the funeral from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Esther passed away on Tuesday, March 18, 2014, at The Lodge of Mountain Lake.
Esther Helen “Buddy” Nickel was born to Henry T. and Justina (Neufeld) Nickel on December 29, 1918 in rural Mountain Lake. She attended country school, Mt. Lake Public High School (graduating in 1936), and one year at Mt. Lake Bible School. While in country school, Buddy played the part of a boy named Buddy, thus the nickname stuck! She worked at Jungas Hardware in Mountain Lake; then she and her friends decided to venture to California, getting jobs at a bank. Finally, at her mother’s insistence, Buddy returned home to work at Farmer’s State Bank in Mountain Lake.
Along came Loren Feil, who “went to the bank to get a Nickel,” and they were married on October 16, 1952, at First Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake. They lived in the Creamery Apartments until they built a new home on 2nd Avenue in Mountain Lake, where Buddy became a homemaker and gardener. She was known for her beautiful roses and awesome potato salad. Buddy Joined Trinity Lutheran Church in Mountain Lake and was active in Ladies Aid and choir. She was a member of the Mountain Lake American Legion Auxiliary. Buddy enjoyed bird-watching, 15 club, cats, Mountain Lake Bird Club, traveling and shell collecting, the opera, “tea time” with friends, purple and COOKIES!
Buddy is survived by Godchildren: Curt (Brenda) Feil and Cheryl (Steve Morris) Starr; nieces and nephews: Stan (Pon Pon) Nickel, Bob Nickel, Matt Feil, Blake Feil, Mark (Susan) Starr, Alison (Dean) Christians and Sarah (Michael) Feil-Catlett; great- and great-great-nieces and nephews and cousins; sisters-in-law: Vera (Wayne) Starr and Marilyn (Pete Peterson) Feil and brother-in-law Ron (Bev) Feil.
She was preceded in death by husband Loren, brother and sister-in-law Leonard and Sue Nickel, and brothers-in-law Don Feil and Robert Feil.