Darlene Hazel Maaninga

Darlene Hazel Maaninga, age 94, of New York Mills, Minnesota, passed away on Monday, August 4, 2025, at Vitality Living Nursing Home in New York Mills. A celebration of her life will be at 11:00 AM on Saturday, August 30, 2025, at Wevley Funeral Home in Sebeka, MN, with a visitation an hour prior. The interment will follow at Jim Cook Cemetery in Menahga.

Darlene was born on February 12, 1931, to Kenneth and Hazel (Rider) Downer in Huntersville, Minnesota. She graduated from Menahga High School in 1949. On August 15, 1953, she was united in marriage to Melvin Maaninga, and she went on to work as a homemaker and stay-at-home mom to their four children: Myrna, Wayne, Bryan, and Darryn. Darlene was patient, humble, honest, and caring. Her self-sacrifice put the needs of her family and the comfort of others above her own. She will be remembered as a warm and welcoming hostess who always had a pot of coffee on, or her famous cinnamon rolls ready for visitors. Darlene enjoyed cooking and baking and she and her cinnamon rolls, oatmeal buns, and potato salad will be sorely missed at family reunions to come.

She is survived by a daughter, Myrna Baumgart of rural Menahga; a son Darryn, of Moorhead; a brother, Gerald (Elaine) Downer of Colorado Springs, CO; a sister, Marladeen Stewart of Menahga; six grandchildren: Nathan, Justin (Gabby), Andy, Kristen, Dale, and Mitchell; four great-grandchildren: Mackenzie, Stormy, Jazz, and Theodore; and many other relatives.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Melvin; her parents, Kenneth and Hazel; two sons, Bryan and Wayne; a son-in-law, Don Baumgart; a sister, Delores; a brother, Gordon Downer ; a sister-in-law, Chalma Downer, and a brother-in-law, Roy Stewart.