Funeral services for 84-year-old Lawrence Strenge will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 7, 2014, at Augustana Lutheran Church in St. James, Minnesota. The church is located at 603 Armstrong Boulevard North.
Interment will be in Bethany Cemetery near Bergen, Minnesota, located at 890th Street, just west of Highway #71, where #71 changes from running southeast to south in rural Windom, Minnesota.
Visitation will be held on Saturday, December 6, 2014, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Sturm Funeral Home in St. James. The funeral home is located at 906 10th Avenue South, as well as from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the church the day of the funeral service.
Lawrence Strenge passed away on Thursday, December 4, 2014 in Luverne, Minnesota.
Lawrence Elmer Strenge was born March 20, 1930 in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, the son of Eilert and Gerdena (Siefkes) Strenge. Lawrence went to Mountain Lake Country School.
He met his future wife, Grace, at the Cottonwood County Fair and they were united in marriage in 1950 at Bethany Lutheran Church near Bergen.
Lawrence served in the military, being stationed in Alabama teaching young recruits on the artillery range. They then moved to Windom. where he sold cars for Silliman Motors, before moving his family to New Ulm, Minnesota, to manage Valley Grain Company. He purchased his first grain elevator, Larry’s Grain and Feed in Cazenovia, near Pipestone, Minnesota, in 1957. After selling this business, he moved the family to Odin, Minnesota, where he purchased the Odin Elevator, and later added the Lime Creek Elevator. After growing these businesses, he opened commodities trading offices in St. James and Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.
In his retirement, Lawrence enjoyed gardening and tending his flowers, fishing, golfing, traveling and spending time with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Lawrence is survived by his wife, Grace Strenge, of Luverne; children, Larry (Elizabeth) Strenge of Rice, Minnesota, Diane (LaRoy) Fast of Butterfield, Mike (Deanna) Strenge of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Timothy (Stephanie) Strenge of Fulda, Minnesota; nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; sisters, Evangeline “Vangie” Harder of Mountain Lake, and Florence Snook of Ironton, Minnesoeta.
He was preceded in death by his parents; daughter, Linda Marie; brothers, George, Dick, Calvin, Eilert and John and sisters, Dina Carlson, AnnaBelle Olson, Margaret Rosenburg, Gretchen Huebsch and Josephine Penner.
