Feb. 11, 1918 - March 31, 2006
OLIVIA -- Joseph H. Honzay, 88, of Olivia died Friday of acute leukemia at the Olivia Healthcare Center.
The service will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Olivia. Burial will be in the church cemetery with military rites by the Olivia Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Dirks-Blem Funeral Home in Olivia with a prayer service at 7 p.m. Visitation will continue from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. at the funeral home.
He was born Feb. 11, 1918, to Frank and Barbara (Vopatek) Honzay on the family farm in Troy Township. He attended Renville School District #126 and St. Aloysius Catholic School. Upon graduation, he farmed with his family. He served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945 as a rifleman in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and also trained troops in Camp Wheeler, Ga. He returned to Olivia where he worked on his family's farm.
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On Feb. 4, 1947, he married Eleanor Wertish in Bechyn. They farmed north of Olivia until retiring in 1992, when they moved to their home in Olivia. He had recently been a resident of the Olivia Healthcare Center.
He is survived by his wife; five children: Joanne (and Les "Pete") Peterson of Clara City, Joe Honzay Jr. of Olivia, Steve (and special friend Rhonda Wellentin) Honzay of Belle Plaine, Dennis (and Barb) Honzay of Olivia, and Mary (and Todd) Faiman of Willmar; and seven grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers and one sister.
