Carol Benike

Carol Benike, age 71, of Dawson, MN formerly of Clark, SD died early Sunday morning at a hospital in Madison, MN. Visitation will be held on Friday, November 21, 2014 from 4-6PM at the Furness Funeral Home in Clark and after 10AM at the Church on Saturday morning. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, November 22, 2014 at 11AM in the Peace Lutheran Church at Clark with Pastor Allen Lonnquist of Dawson, MN officiating. Barb Wegman will be the organist with congregational singing. Honorary Casketbearers Josiah, Gavin, Jasmine, Gracyn, Kaihley, Abigail Casketbearers Tyson, Jordan, Riley, Isaiah, Dana, Devlin, Darren & Jason Benike JR Nuttbrock, Dayton Nuttbrock & Lance Mills Burial will follow in the Rose Hill Cemetery at Clark. Carol was born to Edward and Grace (Nagle) Benike at Clark on December 24th, 1942 at Mable Stacey's, who was a mid-wife in Clark. Carol attended District 12 School and graduated Raymond High School in 1960. On July 5th, 1969, he was united in marriage to Susan Gross at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Raymond, SD. The couple lived on their family farm where he had dairy cows of which he received many awards for milk and herd production for 20 plus years. He was a board member of the Dairy herd Improvement Association for several years. It was well known that everyone was always welcome in the Benike home. Due to Carol's health their family moved from the farm in 1994 to Clark, SD and then again in 1996 to Dawson, MN. After becoming disabled, he became a very accomplished cook and baker over the last 20 years. Some of his specialties were breads, pastries, cookies, and pies. While most kids like cakes for their birthday, however, his grandchildren requested a pie or one of their "Big Dawg's" special treats for their birthday. Carol had the most amazing chocolate chip cookies and to this day he would testify that the recipe was from the back of the package, but there was a lot of love in those cookies that made them so special, hand delivered in a cottage cheese container! Susan really appreciated coming home to a good supper after work each day and watching Wheel of Fortune. Carol was an avid sports fan, if you needed statistics on High School, College, or professional sports he was your guy, especially if it was about baseball. His grandchildren would ask him questions off baseball cards and were in awe of his sports knowledge. Carol was well known for pitching, fast pitch softball, and coaching. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, and gardening, with his grandkids and was a master of all card and board games. Some of his favorites were Pinochle, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, SkipBo and Farkle. He was very devoted to God, his family, and friends. Carol is survived by his wife Susan of Dawson, children Melissa of Watertown, Kristen of Watertown, Reese (Michele) of Wilmot, and Megan of Bemidji, MN, his sister Marilyn (Alton) Block of Winona, his sister-in-law Jean Benike of Enemy Swim, several grandchildren, nieces and nephews and many friends. Preceding him in death were his parents and brothers Charles and David. Funeral arrangements are with the Furness Funeral Home at Clark where there is an on-line registry at: www.furnessfuneralhome.com