Clayton County Register, IA, Wednesday, September 10, 1980, pg. 8, col. 4; pg. 9, col. 1

FRANCES OPPERMAN

Funeral Services were held for Frances Gleason Berns Opperman, 78, Saturday, August 30, 1980, at St. Mary's Church, Strawberry Point, with burial at the Cox Creek Cemetery. Monsignor W. H. Blessington officiated and Father John Barnes, Mount Vernon, was co-celebrant. Father Robert Spahn, Guttenberg, offered the interment prayers at the cemetery. Duane and Mark Tucker and Eric Keppler assisted Monsignor Blessington. Mrs. Jack Fridley, Strawberry Point, was organist. Mrs. Cletus Timp and her daughter, Beverly, were vocalists.

Carroll Welsh, Cedar Rapids; Clair Dillon, Waterloo; James Schmitz, Greeley; Dean Tucker and Francis Farmer, Strawberry Point; and Carroll McTaggart, Independence, were pallbearers.

She was born in Elkader May 1, 1902, the daughter of Daniel and Mary Agnes Quinn Gleason. She attended St. Joseph's Catholic School then married Marvin Berns on February 11, 1920, at St. Joseph's Church, Elkader, and moved to a farm east of Strawberry Point where the couple lived some 38 years. Three daughters and two sons were born to them.

An accomplished musician, she was organist and soloist for many weddings, funerals, and masses at the Sacred Heart Church of Cox Creek northeast of Strawberry Point for many years.

After Mr. Berns' death in 1961, she married Carl Opperman in 1966. For 17 years, she owned and operated a coffee shop in Minneapolis. She and Mr. Opperman lived in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Mrs. Opperman died Tuesday, August 26, 1980, at the Texas Terrace Convalescent Home in St. Louis Park.

Survivors are her husband, Carl Opperman, St. Paul; one son, Howard Berns, Bloomington, Minn.; two daughters, Mrs. Irvin (Jeanine) Tucker, Arlington, Mrs. Don (Elaine) Welsh, Cedar Rapids; eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, one sister, Mrs. Edward Brown, Sun City, Calif.; one brother, William Gleason, LaVerne, Calif.

She was preceded in death by her first husband; her first born, Marvin Joseph who died shortly after birth; a daughter, Kathleen Ann who died from pneumonia at the age of three years; and her parents.