Visitation will be on Saturday, March 9, 2019, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Sleepy Eye, MN.

Service will be held at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Sleepy Eye, MN on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 11:00 am.

The clergy will be Pastor Nathan Luong.

Arrangements are with the Sturm Funeral Home in Sleepy Eye, MN. On line condolences may be left for the family at www.sturmfh.com.

Marge was born February 15, 1926 to Arthur and Rosella (Jungers) Bellig in her rural Sleepy Eye home. Marge grew up on a farm outside of Iberia, MN during the great depression. She loved to share her fond memories of her youth with stories of fun times at country school, dances with family and friends in her parents barn and just special times being together with her family. Marge attended Country School in Iberia and graduated from Sleepy Eye Public High-school in 1944. She had shared that she would have loved to be a grade school teacher, teaching the lower grades to begin their education. The depression and war changed those plans and Marge spent time packing c-rations for the war and worked in retail to cover her expenses. Marge met her husband, when he and 3 other gentlemen from Newton, Kansas came to Minnesota to help out with the MN harvests. Marge’s father hired Shorty and this is where it all began. They returned each year following the Kansas harvest until Shorty developed bacterial pneumonia and was hospitalized in a Kansas hospital and transferred to St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. Penicillin was experimental and used only for soldiers in the war. Marge visited Shorty in Rochester for over 1 year. Mayo doctors experimented with penicillin on Shorty in 1942 and the pneumonia was resolved. If it had not been for Alexander Fleming’s discovery in 1928, there would not be any Kramer children from the Lawrence Adam Kramer branch. Romance blossomed and Marge Bellig married Lawrence (Shorty) Kramer January 1, 1946 at Albion Lutheran Church, St. James, MN. The couple raised their 5 children on a farm adjacent to the Albion Church 2 miles west of Godahl. Marge was a wonderful caring, loving, and giving person to her family and friends. She raised one son and four daughters and worked side by side with Shorty on the farm. Her garden was large enough to feed half of the Godahl neighborhood. She cooked 5 meals a day to feed her family and hired help. She worked from sunrise to sunset but still found time to play with her kids and form lifelong memories. She took time out to play house with her young daughters in the lilac bushes and grove. Marge watched all her children participate in the 4-H Program just as she and Shorty had done in their youth. Marge moved to Sleepy Eye in 1985 a year after Shorty passed away. She purchased a condo and found a new life off the farm with an amazing group of people who lived in the condo. After 20 years of being alone she started dating Russ Christensen in 2004. He was a kind and caring friend. Together they traveled and spent most evenings playing Iowa Rummy. Our family will forever be grateful to Russ. Marge was a passionate card player. We are not sure how she did it but she rarely lost a game. She would come home with quarters and ask Russ for advice on how to invest her earnings. She had a great sense of humor and was known for her Ginger Snap cookies.

Marge is survived by her son Larry Kramer of Godahl; daughter Cheryl Vinson and her friend, Harvey Weiss of Eden Prairie; son in-law, Wendy Topp of Brainerd; daughter and her husband, Cindy and Joe Steffl of Sleepy Eye; daughter and her husband, Sue and Rich Lund Madison Lake; her special friend Russ Christensen of Sleepy Eye; 14 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. All of these people she touched deeply. She was preceded in death by her husband Shorty; daughter Vicky Topp; sisters and brothers-in≠ law Ethel and Joe Haas, Elva and Eldred Moll; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Carl and Marion Kramer.

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