Verneda E. Hackner

Stoddard/La Crosse – Verneda Ethel Larsen Hackner, age 96, died peacefully at the La Crescent Health Services Care Center in La Crescent, MN on Sunday, April 5, 2020. Verneda was born on June 11, 1923 to Martin and Anna (Weiland) Larsen on the Larsen Family Homestead in the Town of Plymouth, Juneau County, Wisconsin. Later on, Verneda moved to Elroy, Wisconsin where she attended Elroy Public Schools.

Growing up, she enjoyed many outdoor activities that included hiking, horseback riding, roller skating, and ice skating. Verneda was extremely musical as she loved to dance, play the guitar and ukulele, and spent many years singing in the church choir. On top of her many activities, she was also a very intelligent woman as she graduated valedictorian of her high school class. Her favorite subject in school was English, and as all of her family knew, she had impeccable grammar.

After high school, she moved to California, where she worked as a book keeper at a military hospital near San Diego. Here, at the age of 20, she met her husband, John William Hackner (age 29), a Marine, at the base. The couple was married on March 8, 1945 at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Verneda and John spent 56 years together most of which was in their family home on North Chipmunk Coulee Road in Stoddard, Wisconsin. Before John’s death in 2000, Verneda spent her days, as a stay at home mother, raising their six children while John worked as an architectural draftsman.

Verneda was a loving mother and grandmother who taught her children and grandchildren many life lessons that included; the proper use of “whom” versus “who”, that in order to leave the dinner table all food must be gone from your plate, and heaven forbid if your elbows were on the table during supper you’d never hear the end of it. Verneda lived through many trying times (e.g. the Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam and Korean War, etc.) and always had memorable stories to share.

Verneda is survived by her three daughters Patricia (Jim) Ritzinger, Joan (Jon) Barrett, and Maria (Robert) Welsand and three sons, Gregory (Carol) Hackner, Paul Hackner, and Richard (Margaret) Hackner. She is further survived by 14 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. Verneda was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and siblings: Lester Larsen, Philip Larsen, and Marjorie (Larsen) Couey Wiemar.

Verneda was a loving and caring, wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She left her family with many fond memories and life lessons that will be cherished for generations. Due to COVID-19, there will not be a funeral service at this time. A celebration of Verneda’s life will take place later this summer in La Crosse, Wisconsin. See Schumacher-Kish Funeral Home website for updates.