Funeral services for 93-year-old Nettie Ratzlaff Erickson of North Mankato, Minnesota, will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, February 17, 2014, at Crossview Covenant Church in North Mankato. Interment will follow the service at Woodland Hills Memorial Park in Mankato, Minnesota.
Visitation will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 16, at Northview-North Mankato Mortuary, located at 2060 Commerce Drive in North Mankato, and will continue one hour prior to the service at the church on Monday.
Nettie Ratzlaff Erickson died peacefully at Monarch Meadows in North Mankato on Thursday, February 13, 2014.
Nettie Ratzlaff was born on December 12, 1920 in Langdon, North Dakota, the daughter of Jacob J. and Elizabeth (Duerksen) Ratzlaff. Her twin brother, Henry, born the following day, died of pneumonia four weeks later. She received her religious instruction in the Mennonite Church in Delft, Minneosta and was baptized and confirmed in the Bergfelder Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake, Minnesota.
Her family moved from Minot, North Dakot to Mountain Lake following the death of her father in her early childhood, where she attended rural schools through the eighth grade. She worked during World War II as a machine operator at a defense plant in Rockford, Illinois. Nettie married Guy L. Erickson on May 4, 1942 in Kahoka, Missouri, and returned to Mankato following Guy’s discharge from the United States Army. In 1952, she and Guy moved to Melvin, Iowa to open Guy’s Café and returned to Mankato in 1954 to raise their family. Nettie worked at Continental Can, Johnson Reel and Mankato Paper Box and in custodian care of the Mankato Commercial College. In 1972, she created one of Mankato’s first physical fitness facilities, the Magic Trim Figure Salon; owning and operating it for more than 10 years.
Nettie was indeed a physical fitness advocate. She ran in several half marathons and continued to run in 5k races, even into her late 80s. She also loved to travel. From the age of 78, she visited Mexico, Israel, the Holy Lands, New Zealand and Australia with her good friend, Jan Johnson. In 2011, she visited two islands in Hawaii; accompanied by her daughters as her guests.
Nettie was a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church (Now Crossview Covenant Church) of North Mankato for 55 years. She served as a long-time volunteer at her church’s former Stoney Point Bible Camp, as a deaconess and as a 30-year Sunday School teacher. Her gift was Christian friendship and evangelism, and to those end.s for more than 30 years she carried out the church’s work by the provision of hand-written birthday cards, delivered each week to the church’s members’ mailboxes. Her faith was based upon her favorite bible verse, John 3:16.
Nettie is survived by her husband, Guy; one son, Gary G. (Leslie) Erickson of Sunburg, Minnesota; two daughters, Leilani K. (Joseph) Barnes of Alexandria, Minnesota and Terry Lynn (Larry) Sparks of Lake Crystal, Minneosta; seven grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren; two brothers, Dennis (Darlene) Goossen of St. James and Leroy Goossen of Coarsegold, California; two sisters, Jeanette (Joseph) Grant of Mountain Lake and Arlene Goossen of Aberdeen, South Dakota; sister-in-law, Eva Goossen of Trimont, Minnesota; numerous nieces, nephews, extended relatives, and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents; step-father, Peter W. Goossen; sister, Clara and four brothers, Henry and Elmer Ratzlaff, and Jonas and Donald Goossen.