Doris A. Virnig

Doris A. Virnig, 78 year old resident of Lastrup, MN, passed away on Sunday, August 19, 2018 at Mille Lacs Health Systems in Onamia, MN. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:30 A.M. on Friday, August 24, 2018, at St. John’s Catholic Church in Lastrup, MN with Father David Maciej officiating. Burial will be at the Parish Cemetery at a later date. Visitation will be from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on Friday at the church. Doris Ann Kliber was born to Philip and Alice (Gendreau) Kliber on May 20, 1940, at her Grandma Gendreau’s house near Little Falls. She was the oldest of four children, and grew up on a farm two miles east of Little Falls doing 4-H and trying to talk over her sisters. She attended St. Mary’s grade school for eight years, and graduated with the Little Falls High School class of 1958. Doris was adventurous, hopping on a prop plane to work at a Baudette, MN resort for one summer. She attended St Cloud State University for two years, followed by St. Cloud Beauty College. She met Ronnie Virnig at a dance at the Falls Ballroom. After driving her home, Ronnie told his family he met the woman he was going to marry. They were married October 20, 1962 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Little Falls, and moved to Hopkins where they lived in a one-room efficiency apartment until they were able to buy Ronnie’s home place four miles east of Lastrup. There, they were blessed with ten children in seventeen years. Doris was happy that they all turned out decent. She sang for many years in the St. John’s Church Choir, with her beautiful soprano voice, and served many years on the Father Pierz School of Religion board and as the marketing chair for the National Farmers’ Organization. Her greatest passion in life was perennial flower gardening. Every spring, gardeners would come from all over central Minnesota to purchase pieces of her plants. Many of the hardy perennial flowers in Morrison County gardens today come from Doris Virnig’s stock. Her gardens fed her talent for flower arranging, and she always showed up to family and church events with an arrangement in hand. Her children will always recall balancing vases of flowers in the backseat of the Pontiac when she went to visit anyone. The week she retired, Doris and Ronnie took off to Alaska in their motorhome. They traveled cross-country, visiting their children in several states, from Florida to California. They took a tour of Hawaii, and Doris went to Germany with her sister, Lois. She will be remembered as being a strong, non-fussy woman, with an abundance of common sense, someone who didn’t need to do something just because everyone else was, and also as always having a gorgeous bouquet dropping petals on her enormous kitchen table. Doris is survived by her husband, Ron, of Lastrup; children, Stephen (Cindie) of Sagle, ID, Cara Smude (Jim) of Lastrup, Gina Lane (Tim) of Livermore, CA, Amy Moore (Brian) of Conroe, TX, Jayne Fischer (Tom) of Duluth, Ruth (Rob Clemons) of Lastrup, Kyle (Angela) of Alexandria, Kate Solinger (Mark) of Sartell, Ian (Tamara) of Browns Mills, NJ, Jesse (fiancé Katherine Pittman) of Lastrup; sister, Lois Benusa of Rice; brother, Gene Kliber of Zumbrota, and 18 grandchildren. Doris was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Betty Pederson.

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Doris A. Virnig

May 20, 1940 - August 19, 2018