Maxine Penas

Penas, Maxine Funeral Services for Maxine Penas of Badger will be held on Saturday, January 3, 2009, at 10:00 A.M. at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Badger. Visitation will be held at Helgeson Funeral Chapel in Roseau on Friday, January 2, 2009, from 5-8 P.M. with a prayer service at 7:00 P.M., and also one hour prior to services at the church. Maxine was born on October 6, 1946, in Roseau, Minnesota, to parents Henry and Gladys (Meier) Sluka. She attended and graduated in 1964 from Badger High School. She then attended the Corbett College in Crookston at Mount St. Benedict, and then the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN. She graduated with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry in 1968. Maxine student taught in Sauk Centre during the fall of 1968. She continued learning through workshops, classes and reading all of her life. On August 1, 1969, Maxine married Albert Penas. They have been married for 39 years and have three children, Mary, Dan, and Sam. Maxine started teaching in the fall of 1968 in Middle River until 1988. She then began teaching in Greenbush where she taught until her retirement in 1999. After a short time she became extremely bored and decided to run for the MN House of Representatives District 1A and was elected in the year 2000 and served in the legislature until 2006. She was a leader in getting Roseau County back to "normal" after the flood of 2002. Maxine loved being a wife, mom and grandma above all. She touched many other people through her years of teaching and serving in the House of Representatives. She loved farming, John Deere anything, sewing, hunting, grain sacks, and her many cats. Her faith was very important to her. She believed in simplicity, being genuine, acting justly, loving tenderly, and walking humbly. Maxine Penas passed away on December 29, 2008 at the LifeCare Roseau Manor. She was 62 years old. Maxine is survived by her Husband Albert of Badger; children, Mary (Russ) Anderson of Greenbush; Dan (Jennie) of Badger, and Sam of Warroad; grandchildren Hannah and Thor Anderson, and granddaughter Josie Penas; brother Ronald (Kathy) Sluka; godmother Hattie Meier; and special friend Jean Hanson. She is preceded in death by her parents Henry and Gladys, brother Jerome, sister-in-law Judy Sluka, and special friend Tim Hanson. Memorials are preferred in lieu of flowers to Mt. St. Benedict in Crookston.