LeRoy Hoppe

LeRoy Hoppe, age 88 of Melrose, passed away peacefully on Friday, May 27, 2016 at the CentraCare Health Nursing Home in Melrose, Minnesota.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 1 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in New Munich with Rev. Dan Walz officiating and Rev. Ken Thielman concelebrating. Interment will be in the parish cemetery with military honors by the Melrose Veterans Honor Guard.

Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and from 10 to 11 a.m. Wednesday with both at the church. Parish prayers will be at 7:30 p.m. followed by a rosary by the St. Joseph's Men's Society and the St. Leo Court 786 Catholic Order of Foresters.

LeRoy Bernard Hoppe was born March 12, 1928 in Oak Township, Stearns County, Minnesota to Mathias and Catherine (Nathe) Hoppe. He was the oldest of six children. They lived on a farm south of New Munich. LeRoy belonged to 4H, raising calves to take to the county fair in the fall for which he was awarded ribbons. In his early years of school, he attended a country school, � mile away from home. When he started high school in 1942, he stayed at his grandparent's farm (Tony and Margaret Nathe) which was just a short distance from New Munich. He would walk to town and take the school bus to Melrose. He didn't get to finish high school because his father was ill with stomach ulcers, so he came back to the farm to work.

Christmas was always celebrated at the Grandparents farm (Nathe's). In the summer the Nathe's would get together at a lake when LeRoy's uncle Fr. Gerad Nathe would come home on vacation. These were always great times.

LeRoy enlisted in the army in 1954 and was discharged 1956. He spent most of his two years in Fort Bliss, Texas where he met an army buddy from Forest Lake, Art Jensen. They were together all of the two years and became very good friends. Art was best man for Leroy's wedding. After coming home from the service, he worked on road construction for a short time; he also worked at the Hofbrau in New Munich. He drove school bus for a time as well. After a couple of years, he started working for Worms Lumber Co. in New Munich and continued there until 1990.

He took part in a play in his parish in 1952. It was a German comedy called "the Imaginary Invalid", which he enjoyed being involved in very much.
In 1952, he met Jeanette Thielen at a dance at green Lantern Pavilion in St. Anthony. After returning from the service they were married at the Immaculate Conception Church in New Munich on June 25, 1957. LeRoy and Jeanette lived in New Munich for their first ten years of marriage and then moved to the home farm.

Christmas was always a special time, spent together as a family. They would get together at LeRoy's parents home with this brothers and sisters and their families for a wonderful time.

After retiring in 1990, he went up to Alaska for the summer to help his son Greg on housing construction, but also did some fishing when he was there.
LeRoy's hobbies included baseball in his younger years, fishing, and camping out at a lake. His most enjoyable hobby was deer hunting. He enjoyed it from a very young age until his stroke in 1997. As soon as his boys were old enough to hunt they would go along and then in later years it included the three sons-in-law. These were memorable times and often talked about, especially around deer hunting time.

Leroy enjoyed traveling to Canada, Alaska, Some western states, Texas,and Michigan, which would be his last trip.

Since his stroke, he enjoyed going to baseball games, rides out in the country, and most of all coming home to the farm and visiting his children's homes.

Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Jeanette Hoppe; children, Greg Hoppe and his wife Karen of Big Lake, AK, Shelly Wiechmann and husband Rick of Melrose, Brenda Fontenot and her husband Vern of Pine River, Dave Hoppe of Wasilla, AK, Tim Hoppe of Freeport, Lisa Uphoff and her husband Jeff of Prior Lake, and Joe Hoppe and his wife Barb of St. Rose; brother and sisters, Rich Hoppe and his wife Flossie of New Munich, Etheline Spanier of Paynesville, and Mary Krueger and her husband Daniel of New Munich; and 11 grandchildren.

LeRoy was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Celestine Hoppe, sister, Kathleen Hoppe, sister-in-law, Marion Hallermann and brother-in-law, Melvin Spanier.