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Duane Louis Klink, 86, was born on the family farm on December 31, 1938, to Milton and Louise (Kuehl) Klink.\u00a0 After a very difficult bout with Covid in 2020, living with the pain of Multiple Myeloma since 2021, and on dialysis with Kidney Disease for the past year, he passed away on October 16, 2025, surrounded by his loving family at home in the same room he was born in.<\/p>\n
Duane was baptized and confirmed at Peace United Church of Christ where he was a life time member.<\/p>\n
He worked along-side his parents on the farm from a very young age.\u00a0 Being raised as an only child, there are fond memories of goofing around while doing chores with his cousin Curt, who was like a brother.\u00a0 He attended Downey elementary school on Chicken Ridge Road and often talked about walking to school with his cousins or taking his pony and cart across the gravel road, tipping it over a time or two.\u00a0 Graduating in 1957, he had participated in band, chorus, basketball, track and FFA earning the Iowa Farmers Degree and serving as FFA President his senior year.\u00a0 Duane took over the farm shortly after graduation when his Dad became deputy sheriff.<\/p>\n
He enjoyed going to Lakeside Ballroom and in 1958, after three times of asking a girl if he could take her home (said he wasn\u2019t going to ask again) she consented.\u00a0 That night started a long, loving, relationship.\u00a0 Duane married Dolores Dietrich on June 10, 1960, at St Paul\u2019s Lutheran Church in Garnavillo.<\/p>\n
In 1961, he was presented with the American Farmer Award.\u00a0 They welcomed their first child, Denise in 1962, another daughter, Diane in 1965, followed by two sons, Dennis in 1967 and David in 1970.\u00a0 He was a hard-working man sometime staying up all night to plant and harvest while still taking care of horses, cows, pigs, sheep and chickens.\u00a0 As the kids grew up, he taught them how to love their family land and animals.\u00a0 However, he also took time to have fun with family and friends while boating, water skiing, square dancing, camping, snowmobiling, and country dancing.\u00a0 He enjoyed being a member of several bowling leagues and was given the nickname of Duke.\u00a0 Duane and Dolores were members of the Chicken Ridge Card Club for over 40 years with many neighbors\/friends.\u00a0 He was a very social person and would stay up all hours of the night talking with people from as far away as he could get on the CB radio using the handle of Ram Rod.\u00a0 The family was always running on \u201cKlink Time\u201d because he would talk with every person he met.\u00a0 He was a member of the Elkader Jaycees, Farm Bureau, Congressman Culvers Ag Committee, Farm Business Association Board, Pork Producers, Beef Producers, Young Cooperatives (Swiss Valley Milk Producers), Hospital Board, Church Council, 19 years on the REC Board, 20 years on the Bank Board, and a Lifetime member of the Genie Society.\u00a0 He was proud to have visited 49 of the 50 states.<\/p>\n
Duane is survived by his devoted wife of 65 years, Dolores Klink of Elkader; three children, Denise (Roger) Gruwell, Dennis Klink (Angi Greeno) both of Cedar Rapids, and David Klink (Misty Baker) of Elkader; seven grandchildren; Aaron (Maddy) Gruwell, Allison (Dustin) Atkinson, Brandon (Lizzie) Klink, Derek Klink (Christine Allaire), Dylan Klink, Cody Klink, and Ashley (Jacob) Tippie; three great grandchildren, Beckham and Baylor Gruwell and Dean Atkinson; sister-in-law, Jane Dietrich; brother-in-law, AlDean Dietrich and several nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.\u00a0 He was preceded in death by his parents; Milton and Louise, sister: Helen, in-laws; Erwin and Gladys Dietrich; grandparents; daughter; Diane; daughter-in-law Tina Klink; brother-in-law Duane Dietrich and several extended family members.<\/p>\n
Memorials may be made to St. Croix Hospice, Elkader Genie Society, Central Community School FFA or Elkader Ambulance.<\/p>\n
Visitation<\/strong> will be held at Leonard-Grau Funeral Home in Elkader<\/strong> on Tuesday, October 21, 2025<\/strong>, from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm and one hour<\/strong>\u00a0before the service at the church on Wednesday<\/strong>.\u00a0 Services<\/strong> will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, October 22, 2025<\/strong>, at Peace United Church of Christ, Elkader<\/strong>, with Pastor Paula Anderson presiding.\u00a0 Interment will follow at East Side Cemetery in Elkader.\u00a0 Everyone is welcome to join the family for lunch in the church basement.<\/p>\n For those that are unable to attend, services can be viewed on YTube Link<\/p>\n Leonard Grau Funeral Home of Elkader is assisting the family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Duane Louis Klink, 86, was born on the family farm on December 31, 1938, to Milton and Louise (Kuehl) Klink.\u00a0 After a very difficult bout with Covid in 2020, living with the pain of Multiple Myeloma since 2021, and on dialysis with Kidney Disease for the past year, he passed away on October 16, 2025, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1],"tags":[1283],"class_list":["post-18306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","category-uncategorized","tag-klink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18310,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306\/revisions\/18310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}