Erna Wiechman

JUDSON -- Erna Wiechman, 94, Judson, died March 26, 1999, in a Bismarck hospital. Services will be 2 p.m. MST Tuesday at Zion Lutheran Church, New Salem, with the Rev. Loren Strum officiating. Burial will be in Bethel Cemetery, southeast of New Salem.

Visitation will be from 4-9 p.m. Sunday at Buehler-Larson Funeral Home, Mandan, from 2-3 MST Monday at Elm Crest Nursing Home, New Salem, and after 4 p.m. MST Monday at Buehler-Larson Funeral Home, New Salem, where a prayer service will begin at 7 p.m. MST. Visitation will continue one hour before services at the church.

Erna Clara Olga Merting was born Sept. 15, 1904, in Sherrill, Iowa, the seventh child of the Rev. Gustav Adolf and Louise (Winter) Merting. She moved with her parents wherever her father had a church to serve. She graduated from Mandan High School in 1925, and later from Dickinson State University.

She taught in many schools, including Judson, New Salem, Williston, McIntosh, S.D., Baldwin and Moffit. Erna married August Wiechman on Feb. 13, 1926, at Zion Lutheran Church, south of Judson. August died on Aug. 31, 1948. She concluded her teaching career as she had begun it, in a one-room schoolhouse, teaching her last class in 1971, in a rural school south of Mandan. A widow for more than 50 years, she lived on the Wiechman farm until early 1998, and entered the Elm Crest Nursing Home in July of that year.

She was a member of Flasher American Legion Auxiliary and Zion Lutheran Church. A lady who loved the outdoors, Erna enjoyed both rock hunting and gardening. She took particular pride in her flower garden and spent many hours lovingly tending it. She cared for animals and especially enjoyed feeding the birds.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Gerald and Ilene, Flasher; her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Donald Weekes, New Salem; five granddaughters, Tina, Renee and Mandi Wiechman, all of Flasher, Louise Noonan and her husband, Tom, Solen, and Donna Neumiller and her husband, Scott, New Salem; nine great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; one sister and brother-in-law, Joyce and Wayne Holberg, Lake Forest, Ill.; a special grand nephew, Mike Nickel; a special nephew, Karl Merting, who lived with her family during World War II, of Wantagh, N.Y.; numerous nieces, nephews, grand and great-grand nieces and nephews; and many friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; six sisters, Louise Merting, Ruth Ellwein, Elsbeth Godwin, Ellen Nickel, Lucy Merting and Martha Thiel; two brothers, Armin and Gustav "Adolf;" and one granddaughter, Linda Weekes Thomas.