Funeral services for Bertha Will, age 99, of Bismarck, ND, formerly of Elgin, ND, will be held at 10:00 a.m. MT on Monday, April 14, 2014 at the Hope Congregational Church in Elgin, ND. A time of fellowship and luncheon will follow the funeral, before traveling to Johannestahl Cemetery north of New Leipzig, ND, for the burial.

Visitation will be one hour prior to services at the church in Elgin on Monday morning.

Bertha Zimmerman was born on January 5, 1915 to Frederick and Louisa (Kirsch) Zimmerman in McLaughlin, SD. Her family then purchased a farm near Fort Yates, ND, where Bertha grew up. On March 25, 1935, she was united in marriage to Arthur Will in Elgin, ND. They made their home north of New Leipzig until settling on the Hoff farm nine miles northeast of Elgin. While there they farmed and raised wheat, corn, and other small grains as well as hogs, cattle and chickens. They were very proud of their Angus cattle and Brown Swiss dairy cows.

Bertha was a hard working German lady who helped with outside chores as well as inside work. There was always a lot of cooking and baking including all the good German foods such as kase kneoph, kuchen and strudel. Bread and caramel rolls were baked weekly. Berth was also a good seamstress and made all of her own clothes and clothes for her children. A store bought dress was real treat! Bertha loved the outdoors and always had a big garden to take the family through the winter with canned food. Meat was also butchered and canned before electricity came along in 1949.

In 1976 Bertha and Arthur retired to Elgin where they were members of Hope Congregational Church and Bertha was a member of the ladies aide society. She was also a member of the Elgin Homemakers Club. Arthur passed away in August of 1988 and Bertha continued to live in their home until moving to Bismarck in October of 2002. In April 2011, Bertha moved into St. Gabriel's.

Bertha passed away peacefully at the age of 99, on Thursday, April 10, 2014, surrounded by family, at St. Gabriel's Community in Bismarck, ND.

Her greatest joy was her family, including 10 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

She will be dearly missed by her three daughters, Loretta (Morris) Roningen, Bismarck, ND, Mildred Will, Everett, WA, Nita (Rowland) Geist, Bismarck, ND; one son, Gordon Will, Elgin, ND; and two sisters, Violet Klein, Lemmon, SD, and Nelda Zimmerman, Denver, CO.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Arthur; brothers, Reinhold, Richard, Oscar and Norman; and sisters, Lydia, Martha, Hilda and Lillian.