Marion Mae (Jantz) Gackle left her earthly home at Missouri Slope Lutheran Care Center and headed for the heavenly gates on Sunday, November 27, 2022. Funeral services will be held Saturday, December 3, 2022, at 10:30 AM at Zion Lutheran Church, Kulm. Visitation will be held Friday, December 2, 2022, from 6-7 PM with a prayer service at 7:00 PM at Dahlstrom Funeral Home, Kulm. Burial will be held at Swede Township Cemetery, Kulm.

Marion Mae Jantz was born January 6, 1931, on a farm 13 miles southwest of Kulm to Philip and Mathilda (Weiler-Jenner) Jantz.  Marion was the youngest of 7 children. Her father died when Marion was 8 years old.  Marion and her mother and older sister, Sylvia, moved into Kulm. Within a year, Mathilda married John J. Jenner (1940) and John became "Dad" to Marion. They moved into John's home just 1 block east of Zion Lutheran Church in Kulm.

The day after Marion's high school graduation in 1949, her mother suffered a stroke and died. Marion and John then spent 3 months in Washington with her older sisters, and then 3 months in California with John's family. Shortly after returning to Kulm, Marion made a pie for a basket social where LeRoy made sure to win the bid for her basket. LeRoy and Marion were married October 28, 1951, and spent almost 50 years as husband and wife, best friends, farming partners, fishing buddies, and camping buddies. After marriage, they moved to a farm 5 miles east of Kulm where they lived without electricity or running water for a year.  They moved back into John's house to care for him after he had a stroke.  John lived with Marion, LeRoy, and children until his passing in 1968.  With this move, Marion would live in the same house in Kulm from 1940 to 2016. She became a great historian for the town of Kulm.

LeRoy and Marion were blessed with a son, Warren Lee in 1956 and with a daughter, Kathleen Dianne in 1958.  As a family, they raised small grains, cattle, sheep, and chickens.  Marion always had a large garden in town and a large patch of sweet corn in the country. Marion loved making German food such as knephla, kase knephla, borscht, and kuchen.  A holiday treat was homemade ice cream with homemade hot fudge.

Marion loved crafts of any kind and tried her hand at crocheting, sewing, flower-making, scrap-booking, and various decorations.  But her most famous crafting projects were the felt Christmas stockings that she hand sewed for her children, spouses, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  In total, Marion made 37 Christmas stockings and 6 felt advent calendars.

Marion was very active in the Kulm community.  She was a charter member of the Harmony Homemakers club, a charter member of the Kulm Ambulance Corp (serving for 22 years on the squad and as squad leader), she was the secretary-treasurer of the Kulm Park Board for 11 years, a past officer of the Kulm High School Alumni Association (Corresponding Secretary), she taught Sunday School and was the Financial Secretary for a time at Zion Lutheran Church. Marion also was co-chairperson of the Kulm Centennial History Book (1992).

Marion's husband, LeRoy passed away in 2001 and her son, Warren in 1998. Marion's siblings all preceded her in death – Annetta Kusler, Rose Palm, Emma Kusler, Elsie Greteman, Alfred Jantz, and Sylvia Erickson.  Marion is survived by her daughter, Kathy (Dan) Asplund (Bismarck); daughter-in-law Gloria (Dale) Gackle (Kulm); and granddaughters: Stacey (Geoff) Hunt (Jamestown); Brandy (Dave) Dockter (West Fargo); Dana (Kyle) Carr (Mandan); Alyssa (Matt) Wilson (West Fargo); and Laura Asplund (St. Paul, MN).  Great-grandchildren:  Madyson Dockter; Maleah Dockter, Catherine Hunt, Jaxon Dockter, Alexandra Hunt, Cohen Carr, Louis Wilson, and Reyja Wilson.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorials be directed to the Kulm Ambulance Corp or to Zion Lutheran Church of Kulm.