Norma Brenner, 1928-2022
Obituaries-Mobridge / Posted Feb 7, 2022 | 10:12 AM / 423 views
Norma Brenner (93) passed away February 4, 2022 at CHI St. Alexius Hospital Bismarck, ND. Memorial Service will be held Monday, February 7, 2022 at First Baptist Church, McIntosh, South Dakota, at 1:00 pm (MST).
Norma was born May 9, 1928, thirteen miles south of McIntosh, SD, to Christ and Henrietta (Gregor) Vilhauer. Norma attended the Vilhauer Country School until the second grade as the family moved to McIntosh. But this was also the dirty thirties and the family spent extended periods in Idaho picking beets and potatoes which caused her to fall behind in school but she graduated from McIntosh High School in 1948. During high school she worked at the grocery store as well as Mattern Bakery and Café.
Norma married Robert William Brenner on September 12, 1948, at the First Baptist Church, McIntosh, SD. Officiant was Rev. Otto Lohse with witnesses: Mary Lou Gieser and Reuben Jack Brenner. Following their marriage, they lived on a ranch north of Watauga where they farmed and milked cows. The family moved into a home in McIntosh in 1969. Norma worked at the Hilltop Café and Jack & Jill Grocery store finally retiring at sixty-nine years of age in 1997. She then lived part-time in Bismarck taking care of Tylor and BreAnna.
Norma and Robert were baptized at the Isabel Baptist Church on November 13, 1949. They then joined and were very active in the First Baptist Church of McIntosh. Norma was also the janitor of the church from 1977 to 2020. She was also active in the Women’s Missionary Fellowship of the First Baptist Church as well as a member of American Legion Auxiliary.
Grateful for having shared her life are her children: Sheila Hayes, Sidney (Melva) Brenner, Cynthia (Perry) Schnabel and Jeffrey (Barbara) Brenner; and her 9 grandchildren: Dana (Douglas) MacCraw, James (Susan) Hayes, Priscilla (Jeffrey) Werner, Trampis (Aricka) Brenner, Kamaya (Todd) Singer, Kezia Schnabel, Kylin (Whitney) Schnabel, Tylor Brenner & BreAnna Brenner and 23 great grandchildren with 2 more to be born in the spring and 1 Great Great Grandchild as well as one brother, Harvey (Beverly) Vilhauer and one brother-in-law, Reuben Brenner, many nephews and nieces and numerous others who called her ‘mom’ or ‘grandma’.
Norma is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Robert (who died June 10, 1977), grandson Travis Brenner, and the following sisters and brother and sister-in-law’s: Elsie (Robert) Riedlinger, Zella (Paul) Schafer, Esther (Lewis) Smith, Mary Lou Brenner, Bertha (Reinhold) Schadler, Charles (Isabelle) Brenner, Helen (Joe) Ketchum, Emma (Wilbert) Handel, Emil (Bertha/Jeanette) Brenner and Clarence (Margaret) Brenner.
Memorials are preferred to First Baptist Church, McIntosh, South Dakota.