Obituary of Alyce Henninger

Alyce Louise Henninger passed to be with her husband and her Lord on July 1, 2023 at the Inter-Faith Care Center in Carlton, MN. She grew up on a dairy farm in the rural area near Nemadji which is a few miles east of Barnum, MN. Alyce attended Central School, Nemadji and the Barnum High School. She went to work after high school at the Barnum Creamery. On May 27, 1949 she married Edwin Ralph Henninger who was also of the Nemadji area. They attended the Brethren Church near Nemadji until it closed and then began attending the Methodist Church (now known as the Barnum Community Church) in Barnum where they were members until today.

Alyce worked on her and Ed’s dairy/beef cattle farm into her early 80’s. She ran tractors during hay season, hauled turkey manure with a gravel truck while Ed was working. She also took an occasional truck load of pulp wood to the paper mill in Cloquet. In the early 60’s, she went to work at the Minnesota State Hospital in Moose Lake in food services until the early 90’s.

She loved gardening, flowers and music. She inspired the love of music in her children. She played the accordion in her early years and frequently played for morning services at the Brethren Church. She expressed some concern prior to those performances that while playing a hymn she might slide into the “Beer Barrel Polka”….which she never did. She spent many years working in the Barnum church kitchen and was always involved in the church’s pancake breakfasts during the annual Spring Fever Days celebrations. She loved mowing lawn and could be seen even into her late 80’s in her straw hat flying around the yard on her riding mower searching for any unsuspecting blade of grass that dared to grow too high. She loved visitors and no one came through her door without being offered coffee, sweets and conversation.

She was a tremendously kind person who had a wonderful sense of humor. She expressed this kindness and care for others in her conversations even up to the day she quietly fell asleep and passed into her eternal life with Jesus.

Alyce was preceded in death by her husband of 74 years, Edwin Ralph Henninger; daughter, Barbara Holte; parents, Oscar and Sarah (Eikenbery) Peterson; brothers, Quinten (Pete), Kenneth, Burton Peterson; sisters, Lillian Paulson, Arlene Peterson, Laura Wekseth, Iola Mraz.

She is survived by her daughter, Sharon Davis; son, Loren (Karen) Henninger; grandchildren, Jason (Leina) Holte of Eagan, MN, Jenny (Adam) Kiminski of Cloquet, MN, Jessica Davis (Tyler Neill) of Bagley, MN, Michelle (Justin) Purdie of Bemidji, MN; great-grandchildren, Tayah Holte, Brylee, Araya, Tenley, Isaac Kiminski, Seth Kleeb, Harley Fowler, and Alex Neill.

Visitation: 10:00 a.m. until the 11:00 a.m. Funeral Service, Monday, July 10th, 2023 at Barnum Community United Methodist Church, 3762 Front Street, Barnum. A luncheon will follow the service. Arrangements entrusted to Atkins Northland Funeral Home, 801 14^th Street, Cloquet. To sign the guest book and leave an online tribute, see www.atkinsnorthlandfuneralhome.com