Richmond
January 28, 1933 – March 17, 2025
Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church, Richmond, MN for Cecelia Hennen, age 92, who died on March 17th at Cherrywood in Richmond with family at her side. Visitation will be at the church prior to the funeral from 9:00-11:15 a.m. Burial will be in the Parish Cemetery.
Cecelia, the sixth of eight children, was born at home on January 28, 1933, on her parents, Aloys and Rose (Witzman) Lahr’s Luxemburg township family farm. German was spoken at home. The family didn’t have electricity the first years of Cecelia’s life. They, like most every family farm at the time, had a windmill to pump water. Until windmills slowly disappeared from the landscape, when riding in the car, Cecelia would be delighted by the sight of a windmill and point out “there’s a windmill like we had at home on our farm.”
Cecelia attended the nearby one room country school through 8th grade and graduated from Eden Valley High School.
On May 7, 1957, she married Elmer Hennen in St. Nicholas. Elmer took over his father’s farm; so, after they were married, Cecelia joined Elmer at the Hennen farmhouse along with Martin, Elmer’s widowed father, and Elmer’s younger siblings, who were still at home. Cecelia and Elmer raised five children and were married for 64 years. Family always came first. In the early years, they raised tobacco. Cecelia took pleasure in her large, colorful flower garden.
Cecelia had a reputation for being a very good cook. She was always on the lookout for new recipes, which she’d modify to make even better. She’d note what people who ate at her table really liked and would make their favorites when they were there for a meal. In later years, some who helped Gary on the farm, said he didn’t have to pay them as long as they could get a few of Cecelia’s home cooked meals.
For years, Cecelia baked bread every week. Her lidded bread rising dough pan was a hand me down and had seen a lot of use. She wanted to replace it. Unable to find another that size, she wrote a letter to the Robin Hood flour company asking if they knew where she might be able to find a 12-loaf capacity bread rising dough pan. Several weeks later a neatly typed letter arrived with the explanation that they don’t make that size because no one person could possibly handle that much dough. So, she continued to make her 12 loaf batches using the old pan.
Cecelia is survived by her children, Doris, Ron, Gary, Linda (Bakker), and Cathy; brother, Gerald (Delores) Lahr; grandsons, Adam, Alex, and Andrew Bakker; and nine great-grandchildren.
Cecelia was preceded in death by her husband, Elmer in 2021; son-in-law, Gordon Bakker; parents Aloys and Rose Lahr; siblings Ardella Lutgen Flaschenriem, Elmer Lahr, Delores VanHeel, and Genevieve Binsfeld; and two infant brothers, Waldemar and Aloys Jr.
The family would like to thank the staff at Cherrywood and St. Croix Hospice for the compassionate care of Cecelia.
Arrangements are with the Wenner Funeral Home, Richmond, MN.
