Ethel P. Klepel

Obituary

Ethel Priscilla (Brandt) Klepel was born on May 10th, 1939, at the rented John Schlosser farm home in Perry Township, Lac qui Parle County near Bellingham, Minnesota. She was the sixth child and daughter of Carl Ewald Paul and Emilie Karolina Wilhelmine (Roth) Brandt. Ethel was baptized into the Christian faith on May 28, 1939, at the Zion Lutheran Church in Madison.

Ethel fondly remembers going to Bellingham with her father. He would take a trailer load of grain to the elevator. He would give her a nickel to spend on an ice cream cone or other treat while he had a beer with his friends. She would go with her mother down a long lane to get the cows for the evening milking. One of her father's hunting friends from Minneapolis had a dog named Freckles. He would leave it out at their farm. Ethel loved to play and take walks with Freckles. Ethel spent a lot of time with her brother Lloyd’s daughter, Karen, at their farm by Nassau. They built playhouses in the grove. They also dressed up the cats like babies and put them in the doll buggies.

Ethel was confirmed in her faith as a youth on June 21st, 1953, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Bellingham. Their confirmation hymn was "My God, Accept My Heart This Day". Her favorite hymns were "Beautiful Savior" LSB 537 and "Now the Light Has Gone Away” LSB 887.

Ethel received her education at Bellingham School. In August 1954, Ethel and her parents moved to Nassau. This meant that Ethel should have attended high school in Marietta now instead of Bellingham, but she refused to do it. Therefore, she lived with Elmer and Irene in Bellingham so she could stay at Bellingham High School. She graduated from Bellingham Class of 1957.

Upon graduation from high school, she worked at the Big Stone Canning Company in Ortonville. Ethel then went to Minneapolis to look for work and stayed with her sister Evelyn. She obtained a job at Midland National Bank in Minneapolis. In 1958, Ethel and her parents moved to Minneapolis and she went to work at Sears and Roebuck on Lake Street in the mail-order credit department. Her starting pay was $1.22 1/2 an hour. In March 1960, Ethel purchased a house at 2604 13th Ave. South in Minneapolis for $8,500.

On June 27, 1959, Ethel met David Klepel of Odessa at a dance at Mel's Funland in Milbank, South Dakota. On September 9th, 1961, Ethel was united in marriage to David Klepel at the St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Bellingham. This marriage was blessed with two children, Brant was born on May 4th, 1964, and Branda was born on September 4th, 1968. After marriage, David and Ethel lived for short periods in Minneapolis, Blomkest, Bellingham, and Big Stone City before purchasing the Ell farm near Odessa in December 1967, the farm that her Brother-In-Law, Marlowe Klepel now owns and lives there today.

They moved to Brownton in July of 1969 when David became the Superintendent of the school. They rented a house in Brownton until they purchased the house at 216 3rd Street North in September 1972. Ethel was a full-time homemaker until October 1974 when she also became a part-time employee of the Brownton Public Schools. She worked along with David as a bookkeeper at the school until her retirement in June 1996.

In February 1998, they purchased a mobile home in the San Tan Mobile Village Park in Chandler, Arizona. They started going to Arizona from November to the middle of April each year until 2018. They always enjoyed visits from family and friends and fun in Arizona during the winter months.

The home on Round Lake adjacent to Otter Tail Lake and near the town of Battle Lake was purchased in May 2000. David and Ethel enjoyed many summers at the lake with their children and grandchildren, especially around the 4th of July holiday, the parades, and tubing down the river. They also enjoyed taking the kids and grandkids to Valleyfair and Como Park Zoo each summer.

Her nephews, Dick and Dean Ohm of Ohm Construction remodeled and made many updates to all three homes, and they spent a lot of time together.

David and Ethel enjoyed 56 years of marriage before David passed away in August 2018.

Ethel completed a lifelong dream of a trip to Seattle, Washington and taking the Amtrak train back to Minnesota with Brant, Branda, and Karen in September of 2022.

Ethel cherished the holidays of Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and giving kids Hallmark Ornaments, and New Year’s and anytime she could be with family. She loved to attend athletic and other activity events of Brant and Branda, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She enjoyed dancing, auction sales, collecting, restoring antiques, tending to her flower gardens, researching family history with David, baking and making caramel and cinnamon rolls, popcorn on the stove, playing Pinochle, going to thrift stores and garage sales, puzzles, music, reading books, watching the Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, and crime stories on TV. Ethel liked to wash dishes by hand and didn’t use a dishwashing machine. The one in Arizona she used to store pots and pans.

Ethel’s parents, Carl and Emilie Brandt were the most influential people in her growing up years and thereafter. She especially admired her mother for the dedicated role she played in the raising of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Her dream was to do for her family what she did for hers. And she accomplished that.

Ethel passed away on February 9th, 2025, at Essentia Health Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota at the age of 85 years with family at her side. The last three songs that she listened to were “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”, “I’ll Fly Away”, and “When I’m Gone” all by Joey+Rory. The last song she gave to us in her final moments. Blessed be her memory.

Ethel is preceded in death by her Parents, Carl and Emilie Brandt; Husband, David Klepel; Sister, Evelyn (Brandt) Grieger and Brother-In-Law, Don Grieger; Brother, Lloyd Brandt and Sister-In-Law, Caroline (Roth) Brandt; Sister, Blanche (Brandt) Lawrence and Brother-In-Law, Bill Lawrence; Sister, Arlene (Brandt) Ohm/Karels, Brother-In-Law, Leonard Ohm and Brother-In-Law, Emmanuel “Mannie” Karels; Sister, Irene (Brandt) Goetsch and Brother-In-Law, Elmer Goetsch; Sister-In-Law, Judy (Price) Klepel.

Ethel is survived by her Son, Brant and his wife Darla (Keller) Klepel; Daughter, Branda (Klepel) and her husband Steve Mouritsen; Sister-In-Law, Marjell (Klepel) and her husband Jim Wendland; Brother-In-Law, Marlowe Klepel; Grandchildren, Kira (Klepel) and her husband Ryan Stewart, Callen Mouritsen, Kyle and his wife Katie (McDaniel) Klepel, Kaleb and his wife Erin (Ziebarth) Klepel, Dalton and his wife Emilie (Reard) Mouritsen, Justin and his wife Annika (Jacoby) Klepel, Nycole Mouritsen, Jordan Klepel, Kendal Mouritsen; Great-Granddaughters, McKinley and Emory Stewart; and many nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.