Edna Mabel (Church) Hermes, age 101, of Breckenridge, MN, passed away on Sunday, September 14, 2025, at St. Francis Nursing Home, Breckenridge. Services are pending with Joseph Vertin and Sons Funeral Home, Breckenridge. The memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, September 27, 2025, with a visitation beginning at 1:00 p.m., at St. Francis Chapel in Breckenridge, MN. Chaplin Paul Peterson and Pastor David Strom will be officiating the services. Burial will be held at Riverside Cemetery, Breckenridge. Arrangements have been entrusted to Joseph Vertin and Sons Funeral Home, Breckenridge.
Edna Mable Church Hermes was born on September 1, 1924, to Edna Elizabeth Schneckenburger Church and Calvin Elwell Church, their 3rd child, in the Bronx, New York City. Edna was sent to live with Grandma and Grandpa Schneckenburger, when her mother was ill and passed away in 1935. Edna, at age 11, went to live at the Free Home for Young Girls, while attending public school.
After finishing school Edna and her boarding school friend, Lillian, got an apartment and jobs in Manhattan. During World War II in July 1942, Lillian met a sailor at the ice cream parlor where she was working. Lillian arranged a blind date for Edna with her sailor’s friend (Gabe Hermes) from the USS Polaris. After Edna and Gabe’s second date, Edna told her stepmother that she was going to marry Gabe. Indeed, they were married December 18, 1942, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in New York City. Carol was the first child born in 1944 in NYC.
Edna stayed in NY until April of 1945. She then moved to Minneapolis with one of her sisters, moving into an apartment building (rent of $33 per month) where two of Gabe’s sisters were living. Edna worked at the Gopher Restaurant on Hennepin Ave. from 5 pm until 2 am. She received babysitting help from her sister and two sisters-in-law.
When the war was over Edna & Gabe stayed in Minneapolis until September 1947, then moving to Fairmount, ND, to farm with family.
From July of 1942, Edna went from being a single girl with an apartment roommate in NYC, to being a family living in rural North Dakota in September of 1947. She was moved from NYC with all its amenities to a rural ND farm with no running water, no electricity, no telephone, and no winter cleared roads for traveling.
The family moved to Breckenridge in August 1959. Edna went to work sewing for Paterka’s Draperies, later changing to work as Credit Manager at Montgomery Ward, and then at the Credit & Collection Bureau of Wahpeton-Breckenridge in 1972. In 1986, Edna and Gabe bought the Credit & Collection Bureau of Wahpeton-Breckenridge and kept it until the fall of 2005 when they both retired.
Gabe passed away in January 2014. Edna continued to live in Breckenridge in her own home, thanks in a large part to her neighbors Connie Hutton & the Jason/Rita Lofberg family. Edna went into St. Francis Hospital in January 2024 and then St. Francis Home in February 2024. Edna enjoyed the wonderful care from the great staff at SF Home & making new friends with the residents.
Edna was preceded in death by daughter, Lavonne and son-in-law David Boike, grandsons, Seth Nelson, Brad Bitner, Jacob Bitner, & Michael Hermes. She is survived by her children, Carol (Odell) Nelson, Edna (Lee) Hingst, Frances (Dennis) Bitner, Calvin (Vicki) Hermes, & Gabe (Lori) Hermes; 25 grandchildren, 50 great-grandchildren, & 7 great-great-grandchildren.
Mom, Grandmom, Great Grandmom, & Great-Great-Grandmom.