Dorine Addie (Kroschel) Hedtke
Dorine Addie (Kroschel) Hedtke was born at Kroschel, Minnesota, on June 6, 1928 to Adolph and Dora Kroschel. Dorine grew up on the original Kroschel farm located in the family’s namesake township of Kroschel, Kenabec County, Minnesota. Dorine’s youth was spent immersed in her family including two brothers, Robert (Bobby) and Hugo, a sister Rosa and an extended family network of uncles, aunts and many cousins. Dorine attended elementary school in the one-room Kroschel schoolhouse and she graduated from high school in the nearby town of Hinckley. Sunday was a special day at the Kroschel home. It usually began with the family joining extended family members and other neighboring farmers at the “Kroschel church” (St. Johns Lutheran Church) built around the turn of the century by her great grandfather and other members of the newly founded farm community. After high school, Dorine left home and moved to Duluth, Minnesota where she worked for the Arco Coffee Company. She began exchanging letters with a young man from the Hinckley area named Paul Hedtke who had been drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Korea in 1951. Their letter writing relationship would lead to marriage on October 11, 1952. Dorine and Paul moved to the Baudette, Minnesota area shortly after their marriage where they farmed and raised a family of four children; Lori, Mary, Paul and Fred. After their children left home, the couple returned to Hinckley where they lived among members of their respective extended families for the next 21 years. In 2001, they moved to California where all four of their children had previously migrated. They took up residence at their son’s ranch in the mountains near San Diego, until Paul passed away in 2010. After Paul’s death Dorine moved into the city (San Diego) and lived in the community of Tierrasanta near her son Paul and daughter Lori. Dorine passed away on January 24, 2016 at Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego due to complications from an infection and congestive heart failure. She was preceded in death by her husband Paul, parents Adolph and Dora Kroschel, and her brother Hugo Kroschel. She is survived by her siblings Robert Kroschel and Rosa (Ronald) Swanson; four children: Lori Edgar, Mary Clontz, Paul (Tammi) Hedtke, and Fred (Mari) Hedtke; nine grandchildren: Patrick Edgar, Jennifer Edgar, Melissa Edgar, Alex (Jen) Clontz, Jodi Clontz, Lisa Clontz, Joshua Hedtke, Ashley Hedtke, and Alexa Hedtke; great-grandchildren: Edward Clontz-Kuntze and Camilla Edgar; and many nieces and nephews. Dorine loved her family dearly and often proclaimed her children were the most important thing in her life. She also loved raising flowering plants, feeding and observing birds, and embroidery. Another favorite pastime, reading her Bible, gave her inspiration and was the foundation of her character and life. She will be interred at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kroschel, Minnesota, joining her parents, grandparents, other relatives and childhood friends. May she rest in peace.
Funeral service will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kroschel Township on April 16th at 2 PM.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to St. John’s Lutheran Church, 3289 Velvet St., Hinckley, MN 55037 or St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, PO Box 99, Hinckley, MN 55037.
