{"id":4634,"date":"2018-02-15T13:06:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T19:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2018-02-26T09:42:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T15:42:22","slug":"4634","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2018\/02\/4634\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnell A Wilker, Elkader, Iowa, February 15, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burnell Wilker, 86, of Elkader, passed away Thursday, February 15th, 2018, peacefully in hospice care\u00a0at Central Community Hospital. Burnell Wilhelm Arno Wilker was born March 7, 1931, to Arthur and Hertha (Funk) Wilker. He was baptized on the 19th of April, 1931 at Zion Lutheran Church, Clayton Center. He went to Public Schools of Clayton County and received a diploma from it on May 15th, 1945,\u00a0and later graduated from Farmersburg High School in 1949. While in high school, Burnell enjoyed sports and\u00a0lettered in baseball and basketball.\u00a0 He was a\u00a0private in the Honor\u00a0Platoon 203 U.S. Marine Corps and was stationed in San Diego, California. He proudly\u00a0served as a marine from 1952 to 1954.<\/p>\n

Burnell actually met his future wife while they both\u00a0attended Mecklenberg\u00a0County School in the late 1930s. He was united in marriage to Iva Dean Cora Louise Hoth on January 31, 1955, at Peace Church, Elkader, Iowa.<\/p>\n

Burnell owned and operated Wilker Feed & Seed, Inc, for 38 years. In 1993, he sold the business to his son, Brian, and continued to work “semi-retired” until 1998. He loved meeting new people and was proud to a business owner in Elkader. He was also an active member of the St. Olaf American Legion.<\/p>\n

Burnell loved just\u00a0being around his whole family. He adored his grandchildren and greagrandchildren.\u00a0Fishing, anytime of the year, was his favorite hobby. Plus, he liked\u00a0playing bingo and cards with family and friends. He devoted many years to working with 4-H kids and volunteering at the Clayton County Fair.\u00a0He loved to travel to new places and won many trips through his business by exceeding feed\u00a0sales goals. Even though Iva Dean preferred to stay home, she was by his side for every trip. London, England was one of their favorite trips abroad.<\/p>\n

Survivors include his sons: Dan (Marcy) Wilker of Dubuque, Brian (Dixie) Wilker of Elkader, Mark (Linda) Wilker of Urbandale; nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and his sister Annabelle Peterson of St. Cloud, MN.<\/p>\n

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife Iva Dean in 2016 and his brothers, Eldon, Clifford and Karl.<\/p>\n

Visitation<\/strong>: 2\u00a0 –\u00a0 5 PM\u00a0 on Sunday, February 18, 2018, at\u00a0 Peace United Church of Christ in Elkader and after 10 AM on Monday also at the church.<\/p>\n

Funeral Service<\/strong>: 11:00 AM on Monday, February 19, 2018, at Peace United Church of Christ in Elkader with Rev. Jon Haack officiating.<\/p>\n

Interment with Military Honors<\/strong>: East Side Cemetery, Elkader<\/p>\n

Leonard-Grau Funeral Home is assisting the family. Online condolences can be left with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burnell Wilker, 86, of Elkader, passed away Thursday, February 15th, 2018, peacefully in hospice care\u00a0at Central Community Hospital. Burnell Wilhelm Arno Wilker was born March 7, 1931, to Arthur and Hertha (Funk) Wilker. He was baptized on the 19th of April, 1931 at Zion Lutheran Church, Clayton Center. He went to Public Schools of Clayton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[284],"class_list":["post-4634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-wilker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634","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=4634"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4708,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions\/4708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}