Clara Block

Clara Block, age 98, of Atwater, died Saturday morning, May 6, at the Emmanuel Home in Litchfield.

Funeral services will be 11:00 A.M. Wednesday, May 10, at the Atwater United Methodist Church with Rev. Joseph Carpenter officiating. Interment will be in the Union Cemetery in Atwater. Visitation will be 5-8 P.M. Tuesday at the Atwater Funeral Home and one hour prior to the service at the church. Memorials are preferred to the Atwater United Methodist Church Sunday School Program.

Clara Block was born February 17, 1908, in rural Hutchinson, the daughter of Ida (Rannow) and Paul Borchardt. Her early years were spent in the rural Hutchinson community, where she attended the Heatwole rural school. In 1920, she moved with her family to the Cosmos community. On March 29, 1930, she married William C. Block at her parents' home. They lived and farmed near Hutchinson, then Silver Lake and, in 1952, moved to rural Kandiyohi. In 1967, they moved to a farm in rural Atwater. Following the death of her husband, she moved into Atwater. For about nine years, she was employed by Jennie-O Foods in Willmar. In 1997, she moved to the Emmanuel Home in Litchfield.

She is survived by a son, William Block of Bloomington; two daughters, Ardelle Messenbrink of Princeton and Corinne (and Dennis) Baker of Spicer; 10 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren and a great-great-granddaughter. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, William in 1969; a son, Curtis in 1959; a great-grandson, Austin James Thiges in 1996; a son-in-law, Julius Messenbrink in 2003; four brothers and two sisters.