Maria "Riet" Jacoba (Van Piggelen) Kramer

Riet Kramer, of Milan, died on Sunday, February 8, 2004 at the Clara City Care Center at the age of 77.

Funeral services will be conducted on Friday, February 20, 2004 at 2:00 PM at Kviteseid Lutheran Church in Milan with Rev. Trevor Bailey officiating.  Interment will be in the Kviteseid Lutheran Milan Methodist Cemetery.

Visitation will be Thursday afternoon and evening, with the family from 5 - 7 PM and with a prayer service at 6:30 PM at the Anderson Funeral Home in Montevideo.

Maria  “Riet” Jacoba Kramer was born on May 23, 1926 in Utrecht, Holland to  Jacob and Maria (Brands) Van Piggelen.  She was baptized and confirmed in the Dutch Reformed Church.  Her father was in the army, so they lived on the base in Utrecht, where her mother was a tailor and seamstress. She attended parochial school, had 2 years of nurse’s training and 2 years of social work training. Riet worked as a social worker in children’s institutions in Holland, and when she got too stressed, she would work at something different.  She was a nanny in England and the United States before becoming a U.S. citizen in 1969.  She worked at Lutheran Social Service in Minneapolis and managed the Pillsbury House girls boarding house in Minneapolis.   On August 28, 1971 she was united in marriage to Leonard Kramer at Kviteseid Lutheran Church in Milan. She was  an active member of Kviteseid Lutheran Church, where she served on many boards.  Riet’s many hobbies consisted of all types of embroidery (hardanger was her favorite), quilting, collecting buttons and items used in sewing, making teddy bears and making and repairing dolls. She also enjoyed bird and nature watching, hunting agates and making jewelry of them.  The design on the church altar cloth is hers and took 3 years for she and several other women to complete.  Following a series of  strokes,  she was first in Rice Care Center in Willmar from October 29, 1999 to October 19, 2001 when she entered Clara City Care Center, where she received wonderful care until the time of her death.

She is survived by her husband Leonard; children: Kris Kramer married Joanne Snyder they had three children: Sina, Aaron and Courtney and Kris is now married to Alicia Hitchcock of Columbus, IN, Karsten Kramer and his wife Barbara have three children Jessica, Claire Ann, and James of Dillon, MT, Kari married Paul Johnson and they had two children: Rochelle and Stephanie and Kari is now married to Gary Reimers of Centerville, MN, and Karsten’s daughter Stephanie is married to Paul McKenzie and they live in Clara City, MN with their children Meghan and Nicolas; a sister, Tine Van Hilst  and her husband Lucus of Rochester, MN; a brother, Gerrit Van Piggelen and his wife Jel of Bunnik, Holland; and several nieces, nephews, and cousins in Holland.

Preceding her in death were her parents and a sister, Boukje Van Piggelen who had a birth defect and was institutionalized for most of her life, dying of malnutrition during WWII.