Rosella Katharine Klindworth, 88, rural Fessenden, died April 21, 2018 surrounded by family and friends at the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd, New Rockford, ND.

Rosella was born January 10, 1930 in Tuttle, ND, the fourteenth of eighteen children of Philip and Wilhemina 'Minnie' (Leno) Mehlhoff who were German-Russian immigrants from Odessa, Russia. The family farmed near Tuttle, ND until 1937, when they moved to the New Rockford area. Philip Mehlhoff died in 1941, when the youngest child was five years old, but the family stayed together with the older children supporting the family and helping with their younger siblings. Rosella was the last surviving member of the family.

Rosella graduated from New Rockford High School in 1948 and worked many different jobs in the New Rockford area after graduation, including at a bank and as a bookkeeper at a local feed and grain business. She met Ray Klindworth, a local farmer from Hamberg, ND at the wedding of her sister at Concordia Lutheran Church. They married in June of 1952 and had three children over the next four years – Keith, Judy and Gerald. Ray was the love of Rosella's life for the next 65 years, until he died in August of 2017.

Rosella's faith was most important to her. She was a lifelong member of Concordia Lutheran Church and a member of the Concordia Lutheran Ladies Aid. She and Ray lived for 63 years on the family farm two and a half miles south of Hamberg. She was a true partner to Ray in every sense of the word in his farming operations and later in Klindworth Seed and Bean Co., where she kept the company's books for many years.

Rosella had wanted to become a nurse, but didn't have the opportunity. Nevertheless, she was self-educated on nutrition and medicine and became a constant source of counsel and advice to those around her. Like a nurse, she had a truly selfless spirit, was always thinking of others rather than herself, and simply wanted to care, to serve and to help. She was Ray's primary caregiver on the farm for years after Ray developed Parkinsonism. In 2015, they moved together to the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd – Rosella to Heritage House Assisted Living and Ray to Skilled Nursing - and Rosella was a constant companion to Ray in his room as his disease progressed. She ate lunch with him almost daily; she knew what he wanted to say when he couldn't speak, and at the end, they simply held hands.

Rosella's survivors include sons Keith (Pat) Klindworth, Springfield, Virginia and Gerald (Lynne) Klindworth, rural Fessenden; daughter, Judy (Doug) Weninger, Holmen, Wisconsin; nine grandchildren: William, Andrew, Alec, Amy and Karl Klindworth, Whitney (Andrew) Kuch, Eric (Bree Breckel), Brian (Maria) and David (Amy) Weninger; and a great-grandson, Bennett Weninger.

Rosella was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; siblings Philip, Walter, John, Minnie, Arthur, Jacob, Elmer, Harold, Viola, Lillian, William, Agnes, Adeline, Daniel, Donald, Wilbert and Helen; and a great-grandson, Dylan Weninger.

Funeral: Saturday, April 28, 2018 at 10:30 A. M. at Concordia Lutheran Church of rural Fessenden

Visitation: Friday from 2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P. M. at the Nelson Funeral Home in Fessenden

Burial: Concordia Lutheran Cemetery.