Anna Marie Breckheimer

The Funeral Mass will be live streamed via facebook.com/stjosephchurchdvl

Anna Marie “Ann” (Hager) Breckheimer, 81, lifelong resident of Devils Lake, N.D., passed away peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, in her home.

Anna Marie, the daughter of John Leo and Angeline Rose (Leiphon) Hager, was born April 10, 1944, in Devils Lake. She and her older brother, Peter, and younger sisters, Dorothy and Donna, grew up on the family farm in Noonan Township and attended the Noonan Country School until the family moved in 1954 to a farm just north of Devils Lake. The family stopped farming the next year and settled south of Devils Lake in a home sheltered by towering oaks and overlooking East Bay.

She graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in 1962 and earned her LPN credentials in 1964 from Lake Region College Nursing School. Ann first met her future husband, Charles Breckheimer, at a basketball game between high school rivals, the St. Mary’s Knights and the Tolna Trojans. Ann was at the ticket booth when Charlie and two college friends – posing under the assumed names of Peter, Paul and Matthew – made their best effort to get away with paying the student price. Almost a year later, Charlie finally got up the nerve to ask Ann to go for a Coke at the Barrel Drive-In.

They married on April 4, 1964, in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and enjoyed an exciting life of devoted love. Ann and Charlie were blessed with 56 wedding anniversaries together before Charlie passed away on Oct. 16, 2020.

Ann earned her 50-year nursing pin, serving thousands of people in the community she loved. She also enjoyed being a longtime representative for Mary Kay Cosmetics. If you knew Ann, you were never fully dressed without your lipstick and a smile.

A wonderful baker, cook and organizer, Ann loved to entertain and host holidays, celebrations or just coffee and cookies for family and friends at her home. She also very much liked spending time at the lake, where she enjoyed camping and boating with family and friends. The couple later loved their more permanent lake home on East Bay until the lake reclaimed it. Ann and Charlie continued to enjoy laughter and lake access through the kindness and generosity of friends Denny and Rose Windjue until Ann hung up her flip-flops for good just last year.

Grandma Ann, a.k.a. Grandma Breckheimer, immensely enjoyed her grandchildren and looked forward to get-togethers and annual trips to a cabin in Minnesota Lake Country. She was a lifelong fan of her Minnesota Twins and attended games throughout the years with her family. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then Ann was whatever is between the two. She could detect a smudge on a picture window on a house a mile off the road while traveling at highway speeds at night. She kept a very neat home. No matter where Ann went, she always brought the fun, and she made absolutely everyone around her feel deeply loved and welcome.

Ann was beloved by so many wonderful relatives and friends from so many circles. She will be greatly missed by them, as well as by her son and daughter-in-law, Jeffery and Kate (Fox) Breckheimer, Chanhassen, Minn.; grandchildren, James Charles “Jack,” Breckheimer, Minnetonka, Minn., Marguerite Jane Breckheimer, East Grand Forks, Minn., Lucy Elisabeth Breckheimer and Ruby Ann Breckheimer, both Chanhassen; daughter and son-in-law, Janelle and Jim “Jimmy,” Vonasek, East Grand Forks; grandchildren, Hannah Jean Vonasek, Grand Forks, N.D., Chloe Rose Vonasek, East Grand Forks, and Elise Claire Vonasek, Fargo, N.D.; brother, Peter A. Hager, Devils Lake; sisters, Dorothy Jean Hager, Devils Lake, and Donna Mae Bourassa-Fawcett, Farmington, Minn.; in-laws, Betty Breckheimer-Stokka and Butch Stokka, Char Messner and Howard Dapper; several nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; in-laws, Clifford and Geneva Breckheimer; husband, Charles; sister-in-law, Ellen (Peter) Hager; brothers-in-law, Leo (Donna) Bourassa and Bob (Donna) Fawcett; sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Barbara and Denzel Olson; brothers-in-law, William “Billy,” Monte and Lee Breckheimer; sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Nola and Roger Bjelk; sister-in-law, Charlene Dapper; and brother-in-law, Norris Messner.

Visitation will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, in Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake, with a 5 p.m. Rosary, Scripture Service and time of sharing. The Rev. Bernard Pfau will officiate.

Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 24, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Devils Lake, with the Rev. Pfau celebrating the Mass. Interment will be in the Devils Lake Cemetery, followed by a luncheon and fellowship in the Parish Center. God bless our sweet Ann, and may she rest in eternal peace.