Werner Kinnischtzke

Werner Kinnischtzke, 93, Tappen, passed away April 28, 2018, at the Napoleon Care Center. Services will be held at 10:30 am Thursday, May 3, at Zion United Methodist Church, Tappen, with Rev. Hazel Behrens officiating. Burial will be at Fisher Cemetery, Tappen. Visitation will be held from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm Wednesday, May 2, at the Eastgate-Steele Memorial Chapel, Steele, where a prayer service will begin at 7:00 pm. Visitation will continue one hour prior to the service at the church. Werner was born April 23, 1925, on a farm north of Glen Ullin, ND, the son of Karl and Barbara (Ding) Kinnischtzke. He graduated from Hebron High School in 1943. Werner attended Mankato Commercial College in Mankato, MN, and graduated with an accounting degree in 1945. He worked in a bank at Binford, ND, for two years. Werner started work in the fall of 1947 at the North Dakota State Capitol. He was chief statistician on the seventeenth floor. Werner married Frieda Hartmann on September 11, 1949, in Hebron. They made their home in Bismarck. In 1956, Werner and Frieda bought a farm north of Tappen, where he farmed. He continued to work in the winter months in Bismarck. He left in 1959 to continue farming. In 1971, Werner and Frieda bought a house in Tappen and leased out the farm. He then worked doing home construction for many years. In 1987 they moved to California where he worked construction, eventually becoming a snowbird from Apple Valley, CA, to Tappen. Frieda passed away on August 24, 2011. Werner always kept himself busy. He enjoyed playing cards, especially pinochle, on Tuesdays at the Senior Center. He also enjoyed reading, doing word finds, listening to the TV, and spending time with his grandkids. Werner was a collector of antiques, especially cars and tractors, and attending auction sales. Werner and his daughter, Diane, returned to North Dakota in May of 2015, when his health was starting to fail. Werner is survived by his six children, Diane, Debbie (Larry) Olson, Dennis (Joan), Darrell (Sherry), Douglas (Carol), and Dwight (Paula); 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren; one sister-in-law, Eldora Kinnischtke; his cat, Lucky; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife, Frieda; his parents; brothers, Paul, Victor, Oscar, Art, Walter, Erhardt, and Ernest; sisters, Selma, Laura, Hilda, Renata, and Tekla. Werner had a good full life and is now with his wife.