Memorial services for Ida Pilger, 80 of Wisner, will be held Saturday, Aug. 13 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, rural Pender, with Pastor Karen McNeil-Utecht officiating. Private burial will be in Pleasant View Cemetery at Winside. Visitation will be Friday, Aug. 12 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Minnick Funeral Home in Wisner and will continue one hour prior to the service at the church.
Ida died Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022 at the Wisner Care Center in Wisner.
Ida Mary Pilger was born in Pierce on Jan. 22, 1942 to Emil and Ruth (Gunzenhauser) Hank. She was baptized on April 5, 1942 at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Wayne. Ida attended school in Hoskins and Carroll and graduated from Winside High School in 1960.
On June 28, 1960 she married Elwood Pilger in Yankton, South Dakota. After their marriage the couple lived in several communities in northeast Nebraska. Ida had worked at M.G. Walbaum’s in Wakefield, Dale Electronics and Daylight Donuts in Norfolk, along with National Fiberglass and Providence Medical Center in Wayne.
Ida enjoyed crocheting, canning, doodling and coloring, her Coca-Cola and the families “State Fair Food”.
Survivors include her husband, Elwood Pilger of Wisner; daughters Becky (Mike) Leonard of Wayne, and Kelly Calhoon of South Sioux City; sons Roger Pilger (Melissa Obermeyer) of Carroll and Woody (Kami) Pilger of Pilger; 12 grandchildren; 37 great-grandchildren; five great-great grandchildren; sisters Eleanor Clark of Granbury, Texas and Carolyn Paustian of Wayne; several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Emil and Ruth Hank; daughter, Robin Pilger; grandchildren, Robert and Jessi Calhoon; sister, Twilla Goldman, and brothers, Robert Hank and Bert Hank.
