Bertha Catherine Choiniere • 1930 - 2011

Bertha Catherine Choiniere, 80, a native of Karlsruhe, ND, died Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011, in a Minot hospital.
           
She was born Dec. 10, 1930, in Karlsruhe, a daughter of Michael J. and Monica (Boehm) Wald. She was raised and educated in Karlsruhe, graduating from Karlsruhe High School. She attended the Minot Business College and became employed by the Social Security Administration. She moved to Minneapolis and continued her employment there with the SSA.
           
On Oct. 8, 1955, at Karlsruhe, she married Paul Choiniere, a former Minot resident then serving with the Air Force in Minneapolis. They made their home in St. Paul until 1958, when he was assigned to an air base in Ramstein, Germany. They lived in Ramstein until 1961, when he was assigned to Omaha, NE. From there, they moved to Ellsworth Air Base at Rapid City, SD.
           
Following his retirement from the Air Force in 1970, he became employed with the U.S. General Service Administration. They lived in New Jersey while he worked out of the GSA field office in New York as a criminal investigator. From there they moved to Fort Worth, TX, and later to Washington, DC, where he continued with the GSA as a deputy director of security. He retired in 1980, and he and Bertha moved to Karlsruhe where they since have lived.
           
Bertha was a busy homemaker and mother to their six children. After they were grown and she and Paul were living in Karlsruhe, she became involved at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. She was the church sacristan, often attended daily Mass, and was commissioned as a lector and Eucharistic minister for the church. She also worked as a volunteer at the Karlsruhe School.        
           
She is survived by her husband Paul; sons, Gerard (Paula), Choiniere, Karlsruhe, and Frank (Garret), Arlington, TX; daughters, Aimee (James) Newsom, Burleson, TX, Jeanette (John) Abel, Fort Collins, CO, and Louise (Brian) Austin, Tempe, AZ; twelve grandchildren; brothers, Leonard (Ilene) Wald, Karlsruhe, and Bill (Grace) Wald, Fargo; sister, Monica Ann (Charles) Scott, St. Louis, and sister-in-law, Theresa Wald, Grand Forks.
           
She was preceded in death by a son, Michael, her parents, and a brother, Ben.
           
Funeral: Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011, 10:30 a.m., Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Karlsruhe.
           
Burial: Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery, Karlsruhe.
           
Vigil Service: Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011, 7 p.m., Thompson-Larson Funeral Home, Minot.
           
Visitation: Tuesday, noon to 7 p.m. at the funeral home.
           
Memorials are preferred to Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church.

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