Leonette M. Koeplin

The Mass of Christian Burial for Leonette Koeplin, Moorhead, Minnesota, will be held on Tuesday, December 13, 2005, at 11:00 a.m., at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Moorhead. Visitation will be for two hours before Mass at the Church on Tuesday. She passed into glory on December 9, 2005, at the age of 87, in the loving, compassionate and professional care of Villa Maria and Hospice of the Red River Valley.Leonette Margaret Parries was born on May 16, 1918, to Martin and Philma Fischer Parries in Fargo, North Dakota. Leonette attended the elementary schools of Horace Mann in Fargo, Mapleton, ND and St. Mary's in Fargo. She graduated high school from Sacred Heart Academy in Fargo, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from North Dakota Agricultural College N.D.S.U. in 1939.She married Marvin Peter Koeplin on July 6, 1940, at St. Mary's Cathedral in Fargo. He died May 1, 2002, and was most lovingly missed by Leonette.She taught classes and coached boys' basketball at Genesseo, North Dakota. She also taught at Shanley High School, in Fargo and St. Francis de Sales elementary school in Moorhead.As an active community volunteer, she was a member and held multiple leadership positions in both Catholic Daughters and in the former St. Ansgar Hospital Auxiliary in Moorhead. She was a charter member of the Auxiliary, and in 1985 she received the first annual Sister Mary Joseph Award for numerous accomplishments in the Volunteer Program and Auxiliary.She was the first Bookkeeper for KFME P.B.S. Television in Fargo. She was an avid golfer and bridge player, a long-time member of the Moorhead Country Club, and loved to dance with Marv, her lifetime dance partner.Leonette is survived by her children: Jon Mary Koeplin and Mark Koeplin, both of Glendale, Arizona, and Mary James Dickinson, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; her brother Marlowe Joan Parries, Moorhead, and sister Betty Kenney, Edina, Minnesota.She is preceded in death by her parents, husband, son Wayne Koeplin and his son Cary Michael Koeplin, and brother-in-law Joseph Kenney.