Karl Jevning

Karl Jevning, 85, of Silver Bay, died Sunday, December 20, 2015 at Lake View Memorial Hospital in Two Harbors.

He was born December 28, 1929 to Ingeman and Inga (Braaten) Jevning in Nielsville, Minnesota, where he grew up on the family farm.

During a New Year’s Eve Party in 1955 at Lind’s Twin Ports Resort (now a boat launch area), sparks were flying and not from fireworks.  Karl and Fran met that night.  Just of the Air Force, the handsome fellow driving a pink Ford convertible was hard to resist.  They were married the next year.

At age 21, Karl enlisted in the Air Force for four years and fully intended to re-enlist in a few months.  Coming home to the farm in Nielsville, MN to visit his parents, he spotted an old friend at a gas station.  That stop led Karl to accompany his friend to Two Harbors to steam ore and, consequently, on to a job at Reserve Mining.  He worked the pelletizer for 30 years and later was employed by Cyprus for three and a half years, training new employees.

Karl loved farming and thought that would be his occupation.  He was only ten years old when he first drove a Model T pick-up hauling grain to the elevator.  During the long strike at Reserve in 1959, still a farmer at heart, he helped a friend in Nielsville by hauling and sorting potatoes.  After his retirement, for four seasons he assisted with the sugar beet harvest there, driving a truck.

The inhabitants of Nielsville in northwestern Minnesota were almost exclusively Norwegian and the language was spoken by several generations.  “I didn’t know there was any church but Lutheran,” Karl said, so Sychar was his choice in Silver Bay.  He has ushered, served on the Board of Operations and sung in the choir.

The closing of Reserve left its workers without much to do.  Karl began hanging around Fran’s kitchen, getting in the way.  She told him, “Your orange hat might have meant something at the plant, but has no authority here. Out, out.”

Karl and Fran did a lot of snowmobiling and ATVing, but have sold their machines.  Karl liked making and flying remote controlled airplanes until his eyesight worsened and he crashed more planes than he could make.

For five summers the Jevnings have spent their time living in their fifth-wheel at the campground in Grand Marais, coming home for church on the weekends.  They enjoy being near the lake, watching the boats, and touring the campground in their golf cart.

He is preceded in death by his parents; sister, Margaret; and Brother, Orley.

Karl is survived his wife Fran; son, Steven (Karen) of Fargo, ND; granddaughter, Shanna (Jesse) Smith; and 4 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 1 PM until the 2 PM service on Wednesday December 23, 2015 at Sychar Lutheran Church in Silver Bay.