Leonard Zierke

Leonard Zierke of Pelican Rapids, MN, passed away peacefully on October 28, 2025, surrounded by family at the Ecumen Emmanuel assisted living facility in Detroit Lakes where he was cared for by many compassionate nurses and aides. He was 84 years old and loved deeply by family, friends, and his wife of 64 years, Anette (Beiningen) Zierke.

Leonard William Zierke Jr. was born July 25, 1941, in Minneapolis to Leonard William Zierke Sr. and Dorothy (Berndt) Zierke. At age one, they moved to San Francisco, California to live with family before later moving back to Minnesota. Leonard, also known as Len, attended school in Waseca, Starbuck, and Northfield, before they moved to Pelican Rapids in 1954 where he started the eighth grade.

The Zierke family grew over the years with Len gaining two brothers, Melvin (Mel) and Stanley (Stan). Right after his parents brought his brother Stan home from the hospital, they got their first television. Len told his parents he’d keep the TV, but they could send Stan back. Kidding aside, Len loved his brothers and they were his lifelong best friends.

While in high school, Len was a lifeguard at the pool, and an usher, bouncer, and ticket taker at the movie theatre on Main Street, where, coincidentally, Anette also worked selling popcorn and candy. He loved roller skating in the basement of the Ford garage in Pelican, and skating over in Barnesville and Perham. Len also liked to ice skate during the winter on a rink behind the hardware store downtown, which is now Veterans Memorial Park. He graduated high school in 1959.

Len and Anette met when she was a freshman and he was a junior in high school, and they started dating right away. Their first date was at the city dump shooting rats. No joke. When Len discovered they had the same rifle, that's when he knew Anette was a “keeper.” After an adoring romance of three years, Anette graduated high school and three days later, on June 2, 1961, she and Len were married at Loon Lake Church outside of Vergas.

Len worked at West Central Turkey right out of high school and then joined the United States Air Force in 1961. He was first stationed in Illinois and then at McCord Air Force in Tacoma, Washington where he worked as a weather observer above the plane hangar which held atomic bombs. His second job in the Air Force was at the commissary bagging groceries strictly for tips. After he was honorably discharged in 1965, Len and Anette drove back to Pelican in their convertible.

Len started as an agent for Combined Insurance in Valley City and Minot, N.D., and then had a chance to move to Rapid City, S.D., where he was a district manager. When asked to move to a rural town in South Dakota with no stores or movie theatres, and only a gas station and elevator, Len turned it down and was then offered an insurance district manager position in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Following his health scare with mono, the Zierkes moved back to Pelican Rapids where Len worked for Combined Insurance. He was then offered three times to take a manager position with American Family Insurance and finally accepted in 1974. Len worked for American Family for 37 years before retiring in 2011. He was always planning ahead and quite organized. In retirement life, Len loved watching NDSU Bison football on TV and rarely missed a game even up until the end watching from his hospital bed.

Len and Anette purchased the Pelican Rapids mobile home park in the 1990s and it’s still in operation today.

Len held professional and personal memberships with the Pelican Rapids Chamber of Commerce, American Legion Post 17, Ducks Unlimited (15 years membership and chairman for 10 years), Pelican Rapids Park Board, Pelican community pool committee, ran class reunions for his graduating class for several years, assisted with the Art in the Park event’s food stand for the Legion, and ran the Ugly Truck Contest in town for almost 10 years.

Len and Anette absolutely loved to travel and visited many places to explore or visit family and friends. They journeyed through Texas, Florida, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, all five islands of Hawaii, Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. The duo also went to Saskatchewan on a hunting trip with their dog, Hairy.

Len acquired his first firearm when he was just six years old and that led to a life of hunting, shooting trap and skeet, and collecting guns and other related memorabilia. He was even on a trap team in Perham and sponsored a team as well. Len loved to hunt and went on countless trips to capture pheasant, duck, geese, grouse, deer, and antelope.

Dogs were another passion of Len’s as he outlived many cherished hunting dogs in his time. Of note, there was Bar (chocolate labrador), Tina (labrador), Radar (red labrador), Nasty (chesapeake), Bambi (chihuahua), Tuffy (poodle), Tiki (chihuahua), Bud (lab griffon), Jughead (springer spaniel), Hairy (German wire-haired pointer), and Amy, the miniature poodle of Anette’s who would go everywhere with them including the hunting fields. Lastly, Fiona, a German wire hair, held a special place in his heart since 2020.

Len and Anette are proud parents of two daughters, Lynnette Joann (Zierke) Coombs and Michelle Teresa (Zierke) Bengtson. Joey and Shelly were both born in Tacoma at a military hospital in 1961 and 1964, and later grew up in Pelican graduating from high school there. They loved going out on the boat as a family where the girls would sleep in the cabin while their parents slept on the deck after a day of fishing and swimming, particularly at Lake Pactola in S.D. Years later, Len’s love for fishing carried on as he took his grandsons and then great-grandchildren out on the open water.

Wherever Len went, he made friends and treasured those relationships. Above that was his family and extended family with seemingly countless cousins scattered around the country who he loved to visit. They also had their niece, Tracy (Beiningen) Boileve, live with them for over a year and enjoyed their continued connection with her.

Len and Anette went to many family reunions together and often couldn’t walk into a place where they didn’t know anyone. Even when they walked into a casino, which they would frequent for entertainment sometimes multiple days a week.

Anette, Lynnette, Michelle, Len’s grandkids and great-grandkids, and his brothers want to thank Essentia Health, the VA clinics, Ecumen Emmanuel, and Hospice for the wonderful care they’ve given Len during his recent stays. May God bless the memory of Leonard William Zierke, Jr.

Len is survived by his wife Anette, daughters Lynnette (Rob) Coombs and Michelle (Geoff) Bengtson, grandsons Garett (Jess) Bengtson, Devin (Christine) Coombs, and Trevor (Beth) Coombs, great-grandchildren Jackson, Baily, Violet, Brooklyn, Mila, and Ivy, brothers Mel (Colleen) and Stan (Teddi) Zierke, plus many family and friends. He is preceded in death by his parents, grandson Zachary Paul William Bengtson (1985-2015), granddaughter Madisen Mae Coombs (1995), numerous family members and treasured pets.

A private burial will be held at a later date.

Prayer Service: Wednesday, November 12 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Larson Funeral Home in Pelican Rapids.

Funeral Service: Thursday, November 13 at 11:00 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Pelican Rapids with visitation before the service from 10-11 a.m. Military honors will be performed at the end of the service and a lunch reception will follow.

In honor of Len, please consider a donation or memorial to Ecumen Emmanuel of Detroit Lakes or Hospice of the Red River Valley.