Claudia Ann Winkler passed away August 31, 2022, after a long battle with cancer. Funeral service will be Monday, September 12, at 11 am at Community of the Cross Lutheran Church, 10701 Bloomington Ferry Road, Bloomington, Minnesota. Visitation will be 1 hour prior to the service at the church. www.Washburn-McReavy.com Dawn Valley Chapel (952-941-7686) is providing funeral services.

Claudia Ann Winkler

Claudia was born four weeks premature on March 14, 1954, at Sandia Base, New Mexico, where her father, Marvin, was stationed during the Korean War. The family later moved back to Minnesota and made their home in a small trailer on the family farm. Her mother, Beatrice, died from complications of diabetes when Claudia was six years old. Her father remarried two years later and Claudia gained a step-mother, Harriet, and six-year-old step-sister, Diane. This blended family was complete when Janis and Aaron were born a few years later.

Claudia graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1972, and Winona State University in 1976 with a degree in Art Education. She taught briefly in Frazee, Minnesota, before moving to Minneapolis to begin a career in the printing and graphics industry. She worked at Pillsbury and General Mills for several years.

After surviving surgery and radiation therapy for endometrial cancer, Claudia married the love of her life, Bret, on a chilly, blustery, spring day (April 29, 1989). In the decades that followed, they would love each other dearly as Claudia fought through breast, colon and pancreatic cancer diagnoses, multiple surgeries, procedures, hospitalizations, chemotherapy rounds, and hair losses. Stressful as it was, they always found something to laugh about.

Claudia wasn’t afraid to love. She loved (in no particular order) family and friends, art and painting, flowers and birds, hayrides and waterparks, chocolate and ice cream, laughter and Jesus.

She was preceded in death by her parents Marvin and Beatrice (Winterfield) Wangen, grandparents Arnold and Frieda (Drommerhausen) Wangen, Herbert Winterfield, Lanie (Jensen, Winterfield) and Laurence Olson, and many loving aunts and uncles.

She is survived by her devoted husband, Bret; step-mother Harriet Wangen; sisters Diane Landaas, Janis Deyak and brother-in-law David; brother Aaron Wangen and sister-in-law Jody Selberg; nephews Samuel and Nathaniel Deyak; nieces Sophia Deyak and Cecelia Wangen; aunts Charlotte Olson and Marcella Minear; and a whole host of special cousins, godchildren and friends that she loved dearly.

Praise be to God for the gift of Claudia’s life on this earth. She was a blessing to everyone who met her.

Memorials may be directed to Community of the Cross Lutheran Church, 10701 Bloomington Ferry Rd, Bloomington MN 55438.