Audrey Hoffmann

Audrey C. Hoffmann, age 91, of Sauk Centre, died Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at CentraCare Health Hospital in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.

A gathering to celebrate her life will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon Friday, October 30, at the Patton-Schad Funeral Home in Sauk Centre. Inurnment will take place later at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery in Little Falls, Minnesota.

Audrey Clarice Tonder was born in Lockhart, Minnesota on November 4, 1923. She was the youngest of three children born to Adolph and Anna (Modin) Tonder. She graduated from Middle River High School in 1941, and in the latter part of the decade found employment with the Minnesota Forestry Service. While there, she met a handsome young game warden and ex-pilot, Lloyd Hoffmann, with whom she shared a great sense of humor, a sunny outlook on life, and, eventually a wedding, on December 28, 1947, in Gatzke, Minnesota. Together they traveled from Warroad to Phoenix, Arizona, and Olivia, Minnesota, before Lloyd was stationed in Sauk Centre in 1953.

Audrey was a stay-at home mom until she re-entered the workforce as a clerk at the SuperAmerica station, and later worked at the Montgomery Ward catalog store, where everyone in town came in to order things and visit with her. Some skipped the ordering and just came to visit.

Lloyd retired in 1976 and became an excellent cook, while Audrey continued working for another few years, finally hanging up her pen and clipboard in 1982 to join Lloyd in leisure, travels to casinos, and bragging about her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Lloyd passed away in 2010, and Audrey soldiered bravely on until finally succumbing peacefully to the frailties of age at 91.

She is survived by three children, Steve Hoffman of Anoka, Jim (Marsha) Hoffman of Erskine, and Cynthia (Ron Warzecha) Hoffman of Minneapolis. She is also survived by two grandchildren, Heather (Marty) Humeniuk of Moorhead and Eric (Jenni) Hoffmann of Grand Forks, North Dakota; and four great-grandchildren, Dalton, Lillian, Audrey, and Alexa.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Lloyd; and brothers, Allen (Yvonne) Tonder and Arthur (Katie Jongewaard) Tonder.