Konnie Wightman

Konda “Konnie” Louise (Evenson) Klipfel-Wightman peacefully passed away at her home in Mandan on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. Mass of Christian burial will be held 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 6 at Church of St. Joseph, 108 3^rd St NE, Mandan. A service livestream will be available on the church’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/StJosephMandan

Burial will be held at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Bismarck.

Konnie, the first born of Lyle and Alice Evenson, started out on April 9, 1946 in Dickinson.  She grew up in Lidgerwood and Ellendale where she graduated from high school and college.  She taught in Holdingford, Minnesota, and then moved to Bismarck to teach in the Bismarck Public School System where she soon became the Library Media Director, a job she dearly loved.

She gave much of her skills and energy to her career and commitment to education, and she made an impact on education of many young people because of that dedication.  However, her heart and soul were devoted to her husband of 33 years, Dixon, her children Kim, Colin and Toby, her stepdaughters, Mary and Susan, and her treasured granddaughters, Mara, Paityn, Saige, Macie and Ellie, and grandsons, Alex and Burke.  Konnie believed she had won the lottery when it came to her grandchildren and she knows they will always be a part of her wherever she goes.

She had a special talent for making friends through the years.  Once you were her friend, you were always her friend and she loved you.  Her world was big, a lot of people fit into it and they all knew that they belonged there.  She also had a passion for the hills and prairies of North Dakota (her own Mull of Kintyre.)  It had a way of bringing out her gentle spirit and she was a dedicated ambassador for the state wherever she traveled. However, she and Dixon also dearly loved being with friends during the winter months of the past fifteen years in Sun City West, Arizona. 

Though small in stature, Konnie was pretty relentless in her passion for life.  Her first priority was family, with public education and library advocacy a close second, and was particularly proud of her work at Valley City State University where she taught and helped create the Master’s program in Library Sciences. She was the patron saint of stray cats, convinced that they were somehow a higher form of the human species.  She was also known to approach a good number of social and human rights issues with fire in the eye when she believed change was needed.  People who knew her will long remember her determination and tenacity. 

Konnie was preceded in death by her parents; daughter, Kimberly; and her son, Toby. 

She will be deeply missed by her husband, Dixon Wightman; son, Colin (Michelle) Klipfel; step-daughters, Susan Eichhorn and Mary Bradley; grandchildren Mara, Paityn, Saige, Macie, Ellie, Alex and Burke; sister, Mary (Ed) Tostenson; brothers, Tom (Merry), Jerry (Barb) and Robert (Denise) Evenson; and many nieces, nephews and cousins that she was close to.  Every one of them is made more comfortable knowing that she has now moved back in with her beloved Kim and Toby.