Valentina S. Klein, 88, Dickinson died Thursday, May 21, 2009 at St. Benedict’s Health Center, Dickinson. Tina’s funeral service will be at 5 p.m., Sunday, May 24, 2009 at Ladbury Funeral Service with Deacon Bob Zent officiating. Interment will follow at the St. Wenceslaus Cemetery, Dickinson. Visitation will be one hour prior to services at the funeral home.
Valentina was born June 8, 1920 in the Ukraine, Russia. She attended secondary school and some post secondary in the Ukraine during the war between Russia and Germany. The German troops came to the school looking for interpreters and she spoke German and Polish, and when the troops retreated she left with them. While in Germany she held a nursing post.
Tina emigrated to the United States as a refugee sponsored by a Killdeer church thru New Orleans, La. With her daughter Nora. She met Anthony Saetz in 1954 and in 1955 one daughter, June, was born to them. Tina lived in Nevada and Washington before moving back to North Dakota in 1958. She operated a grocery store with Tony in Dunn Center from 1963 until it closed in 1978. She divorced Tony in 1979 and moved to Glen Ullin where she worked at the Marion Manor Nursing Home for five years. She moved to Bismarck in 1983 and worked as a housekeeper for the Sheraton Motel for one year prior to retiring in 1984.
Tina met and married Louis Klein in 1984 and resided with him in Bismarck until 2000 when they separated. She moved to the Patterson Place in 2005, due to deteriorating health conditions she moved to the Sunrise Inn but was transferred to St. Benedict’s Health Center in June of 2005 also because of her health.
Tina is survived by two daughters, Eleanore “Nora” (Richard) Schaaf and June (Michael) Schmidt; four grandchildren, Lisa (Tad) Salyards, Cathy (Tim Ensrud) Schaaf, Naomi Schaaf and Ray Schaaf; three great-grandchildren, Marek Salyards, Taylor and Tyler Ensrud; a half-brother, Peter Stonda; and a longtime friend, Adeline (Rodney) Thompson. She was preceded in death by her parents; her infant daughter, Loraine Ann; and her ex-husbands, Anthony Saetz and Louis Klein.
