Pearl Wannemacher, 91, formerly a long-time Dickinson resident, died Thursday, October 16, 2014 with family by her side, at Bridgeview Center, Ormond Beach, Florida. Pearl’s memorial service will be at 10 a.m., Saturday, November 15, 2014 at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Dickinson with Rev. Cal Oraw officiating. A private inurnment will follow at Dickinson Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m., Friday, at Ladbury Funeral Service, Dickinson with the family present to greet guests. Visitation will continue one hour prior to service time at the church on Saturday.

Pearl Wannemacher was born in June 1923 to Aleks and Katie Gayda. She and her five brothers and six sisters spent their early years on the family homestead in Ukraina, north of Belfield. At the age of sixteen, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota . to live with her eldest sister Mary and family.

During the early years of World War II, she worked as a cook and in the laundries at Edwards Air Force Base near Bakersfield, California. She briefly returned to Dickinson in the early 1940’s where she met her future husband, Raymond (Ray) Wannemacher, while working at the King’s Grocery Store. In 1943, Pearl moved back to Minneapolis and found wartime factory work in the Honeywell plant. Pearl and Ray were married in December 1945 in Minneapolis, and returned to North Dakota to farm south of Manning on the Wannemacher family homestead with Ray’s parents. Ray and Pearl purchased the farm when his parents retired and raised four children, Dennis, Linda, Donna, and Tanya on the farm and later in Dickinson.

Pearl was an active member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, and a long-time member of the Dickinson Homemaker’s Club, the Elks, and the Eagles Clubs. She enjoyed volunteering at St. Luke’s and St. Ben’s Nursing Homes, and at the Arc-Aid Thrift Shop. Her special love and talent for cooking and gardening, bird watching, fishing, embroidery, crafts, bingo, casino jaunts, and playing cards also kept her busy. Pearl and Ray spent many winters near Lake Havasu, Arizona fishing, camping, and traveling with treasured friends and relatives after retirement. After Ray passed away in 2003, Pearl wintered in Florida near daughter, Linda, and son-in-law Tom Rainsford. An avid shell-seeker, Pearl loved to spend hours beach-combing for shell treasures.
Pearl lived at Hawk’s Point in Dickinson for three years, then moved to Florida in 2010.

Pearl is survived by three daughters, Linda (Tom) Rainsford of Florida Tanya (Jerry) DeMaster of Minnesota, and Donna (Barry) Kostelecky of Washington. She took special joy in her eight grandchildren; Lisa, Delray, Laurie, Brian, Rayna, Jared, Cambie, and Kelsey; 14 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. Pearl was preceded in death by her husband of 58 years, Ray, their son, Dennis, her parents, and all eleven brothers and sisters