Funeral services for Joseph Thiele of Austin, MN were held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 1 at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Austin. Interment was in Calvary Cemetery. Rev. Louis Cook and Rev. Greg Leif officiated; Mayer Funeral Home handled the arrangements.

Joseph, 87, died Monday, May 29, 2000 at St. Mark’s Nursing Home in Austin.

Joseph L. Thiele was born November 29, 1912 in Breda (Carroll County), the son of Leo and Anna (Leugeling) Thiele. He was the third oldest of eight children and the eldest son. He attended Mt. Carmel Catholic Church and school. In 1925, he and his family moved to Elma where they farmed.

In 1943, he married Evelyn C. Swenson. Evelyn passed away in 1964.

He married Georgia Olson in 1969. Joe has been retired for the last 20 years having been employed at Persinger "John Deere” Equipment, Inc since 1952. He always had a great love of farming and enjoyed being a salesman dealing with area farmers. In the years before Austin, Joe worked as manager of Ward’s Farm Stores in Austin, Worthington and Ames. He also, was employed by Thill Implement of Rose Creek and Jim Lebens Fordtown and Alger Ace Hardware.

He was an active member of St. Augustine Catholic Church all his years in Austin. He was a lifetime member of the Knights Of Columbus Counsel #1201. He was proud of his association with the Fourth Degree Knights and held the position as Faithful Navigator. For many years Joe was the manager of the K of C Fair Concession stand at the Mower County Fairgrounds..

He loved working in his yard, gardening, woodworking and good music.

Joseph is survived by his wife Georgia; one daughter: Yvonne Halverson of Austin; two sons: Jerome of Eau Claire and Galen , of Bentonville, AR; 11 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; one sigter: Clara Beyer of Elma; four brothers: Lawrence of Venture, Henry of Phoenix, AZ, Leo of Austin, and Harold of Elma.

Joseph was preceded in death by his first wife Evelyn; his parents;

Source: Cresco Times Plain Dealer June 7, 2000 from the Elma library collection assembled by Marian (Marr) McGee, Transcribed by ABBYY FineReader® 12, Adapted to the web by Bill Waters