Valeria “Val” (Turner) Thielman, 94

Valeria “Val” (Turner) Thielman, age 94, peacefully passed away Wednesday, January 5, 2022 with her son by her side at Mala Strana Health and Rehabilitation Center. 

 Val was born August 27, 1927 at Elrosa, Minnesota to Anton and Francis (Tschida) Fladung. Her family moved to Blackduck, Minnesota in May of 1937. She attended Blackduck Elementary and High School and graduated in 1945. Val moved to Minneapolis in September of 1945. She was employed at the Baker Co. Department store for 6 years as a switchboard operator and then at General Electric Supply for 7 years, doing inventory control, purchasing and order editing. Val married Carl Turner in December of 1950 in Minneapolis, where she continued to live until 1978. While in Minneapolis, she was very active at St. Lawrence Catholic Church as a member of the parish council, Rosary Altar Society, and Deanery Council of Catholic Women. She was also active in the Como Ave. Improvement Association and many other community activities.

 A few years after the untimely death of Carl, Val married Francis Thielman in April of 1978 and moved back to Blackduck.  During the years she lived in Blackduck she was very active as a member of St. Ann Catholic Church and RCIA program, served on the Parish Council and the Ladies of St. Ann. Soon after moving to Blackduck, she opened The Specialties Shop, doing clothing alterations and teaching hand quilting. She later added craft supplies, teaching crafting and folk-art painting. She was a member of the Blackduck Civic & Commerce Association for 19 years and also a member of the Tri Sigma / GFWC for many years.  After closing her shop, she managed the information center at the wayside rest for 10 years and worked as a receptionist at the U.S. Forest Service.  As part of her tasks with these groups, she worked with the area resorts to gather information and coordinated the layout and printing of the annual area informational brochure, promoting resorting. In addition, she was very active at the Blackduck Senior Center as a board member, manager and chair of the crafts and decorating committee. Her duties included opening up the senior center 3 mornings a week for over 12 years.  

 One of the more interesting areas that Val and her husband Francis did was to organize the annual CCC reunions, which included a Saturday night dinner and program and a Sunday picnic at Camp Rabideau. They coordinated this event for 11 years for the CCC alumni and their families, until the alumni age and heath limited their attendance. In addition to crafts, sewing and many other hobbies, Val also became an avid wood carver. She learned woodcarving along with many others and together they started the annual Woodcarvers festival. Val helped support herself by selling her carvings and participated in the wood carver’s festival for 23 years.

 After the death of Francis Thielman, Val met and married Paul Reisinger in 1998.  Music also played an important role for Val. She played trumpet as a youth and really enjoyed the monthly jam sessions at the Senior Center in Blackduck. Overall, she was a great organizer and loved to coordinate events. Some of her favorite events included church bazaars, luncheon style shows and mother-daughter dinners. She was a fantastic seamstress and made wedding dresses for her nieces, clothing for friends, family and made most of her own clothes. She really enjoyed painting and teaching crafting to others.   

 Val will be missed and remembered always by her son Craig Turner and his wife Colleen: grandchildren, Catherine (Alex) Wilson, Carl (Naomi) Turner, James (Monica) Turner, Monica (Jason) Vanderlinde, Brian Turner and Daniel Turner; 9 great-grandchildren: as well as many nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.

 Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Wednesday, January 12th at 10:30 AM at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in New Prague.  Visitation will take place on Tuesday from 6-8 PM and Wednesday morning from 9:00 – 10:00 at Bruzek Funeral Home. There will be a rosary at 7:30 Tuesday night. Burial will take place Wednesday afternoon at Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis. Mass will be live-streamed on npcatholic.org.  bruzekfuneralhome.com

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