In Memory

Nancy Huttner (Holkestad)

Nancy Huttner (Holkestad)

Nancy L. Huttner Holkestad passed away on February 23, 2011, at the age of 70.  She was born October 9, 1940 in Minneapolis. Nancy's loving husband of 50 years,  Kenneth (Ken) Holkestad, was very gracious in sharing much of this information about his wife.  They were married in 1960 and had four children -- one girl and three boys.  For the last several years they had been living in Zimmerman, Minnesota, which is 9 miles north of the town of Elk River, on Highway 169.  Nancy was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend.  She was preceded in death by her parents, Eugene and Dorthea Huttner.

Nancy and Ken moved to Zimmerman to avail themselves of the peace and quiet of country living.  They had lived for 30 years in Plymouth, Minnesota, and all their children graduated from Cooper High School.

Nancy had worked in the health care industry and had suffered from chronic back pain which began in 1985, when she first hurt her back by lifting patients.  In 1998 she finally endured back surgery; but she continued to experience back troubles for the remainder of her life, especially during the last 5 years, which Ken said were particularly tough on Nancy.  She was a lifelong smoker, and that precipitated the onset of the problems at her end-of-life.  She contracted an infection and was hospitalized in an intensive care unit.  During that care process, to enable easier breathing, she worsened, but died peacefully in the hospital.

Besides leaving husband Ken, Nancy is survived by her four children, Tammy, Keith, Troy and Kurt; five grandchildren, Kory, Jake, Peter, Ross, and Matt; and great-grandchild James; and a brother, Jerry Huttner, who graduated a couple of years ahead of us, and many nieces, nephews, friends and pets she adored. 

Ken said that they never came to any of our class reunions, opting instead to go to his class reunions from another high school.  He said that for more than 20 years we had apparently lost track of Nancy, for they never received an invitation to our SLP reunions, that he could recall.  Ken was unaware that any of Nancy's friends from our high school days kept in touch with her over the many years since 1958.  But in our search for all our graduates in 2008 we did indeed locate Nancy in Zimmerman, Minnesota, and are glad we did.

We recall with great fondness that Nancy was in high school a very nice person, whose charm and radiant personality was as natural as her ready smile.  Nancy was a member of both G.A.A. and Blue Tri in her sophomore and junior years; All School Treasurer in our senior year; participated in the Junior Class Play and was a member of the Student Council in our junior and senior years.  We are all saddened by the premature loss of such an outstanding member of our class.