Foley, Minnesota
Stanley L. Zenk, was born July 4, 1943, in Winfield Township, Renville County, to Sylvester and Evelyn (Soukup) Zenk. He died Jan. 15, 2024, at the St. Cloud Hospital from complications of COPD. A private family burial will take place at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery in Little Falls. Service with Dignity Provided by Foley Funeral Home.
Stan married Sharon Baumgardt of Buffalo Lake Sept. 17, 1964, in Jasper, Texas. They lived at Tomahawk Trailer Court, St. Cloud (1966-68), rural Clearwater (1968-83), and rural Foley since 1983, raising a small flock of sheep on a hobby farm.
Stan grew up on his parents’ farms in Winfield and Melville townships, graduating from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Bird Island in 1961. He was a FFA and 4-H member. He worked on his father’s and neighbor Gerald Jungers’ farms until March 18, 1964, when he was drafted into the Army where he served as a combat engineer, operating heavy equipment at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and drove truck in Vietnam from September 1965 to March 1966. Stan was employed by JC Penney, St. Cloud, as an auto mechanic. From Aug. 1, 1967, to Aug. 28, 2009, Stan was employed by Jack Frost Farm Foods, St. Cloud, working in barn sanitation (10 years) and delivering over 1 billion baby chicks to Gold’n Plump barns.
Stan was a volunteer 4-H leader (1981 to 2017), receiving the Benton County 4-H Pioneer Award and served on the Benton County Fair Board (1990-99). In his free time, Stan was a pretty good handy man, repairing and maintaining autos, tractors, farm equipment, lawn mowers and garden tillers, and building sheds when not working with his 1964 John Deere 110 Garden/ Yard tractor.
Stan is survived by his wife Sharon of Foley; children Sam of Monticello, Sarah (Jerome) Sammons of Clear Lake, South Dakota, and Susan Wiley of Foley; grandchildren Stanton Zenk, Stephanie (Brian) Van Heel, Sandra (Jake Wagner) Bartels, Daniel (Andrea) Bartels, and Evelyn and Brenda Wiley; great-grandchildren Owen Wagner, and D.J. Bartels; sisters, Catherine Seitz of Sleepy Eye and Janet Howell of Olivia.
He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Leo, brothers-in-law Norman Howell and Ronald Seitz, and son-in-law David Bartels.
Memorials are preferred to the charity of your choice. .
F-4-1B
