Odelia A. Bina

Odelia Bina lived a long and vibrant life, putting exceptional energy into her roles as a devoted wife, loving mother and good friend to so many people. After 101 years, she died peacefully in her sleep on April 20, 2024 at Hearten House in La Crosse, WI.  Delia was spontaneous, spunky, funny and always had people wondering what she might say or do next. She had a minimal filter that eroded to none as she hit her hundreds.  

Delia was born near Middle Ridge, WI on February 12, 1923, the eleventh child of fourteen children born to Peter A. and Mary (Zanter) Hundt. They all grew up together on a dairy farm, during the Great Depression, and attended St. Peter’s school where they learned to speak less German and more English and made friends outside of the family.

Family lore tells us that Bernie Bina was riding by with his brother, Leo, driving a team of horses, when he spotted Delia working in the fields and he announced, “That is the girl I’m going to marry!” and he did.  While WWII made it a difficult time to plan a wedding, they were very much in love and set the date for September 22^nd, 1942. It was a lovely event at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Middle Ridge. The newlyweds then endured a three-year separation while Bernie served as a medic in the Philippines.  Their only contact was the letters they sent back and forth. (But oh… those were good love letters.) 

While Bernie was gone, Delia served as a nanny and upon his return, her role became that of  housewife and mother of five children, Rod, Jane, Glory, Mark and Kathy.  She was in charge of getting her kids a proper education. Beyond that, Delia also became a key member of the Holy Trinity church choir, singing enthusiastically for more than eighty years.  That must be some kind of record?! Bernie and Delia were very big supporters of the many fund raisers for their parish. Bernie was active in the Men’s Club and Delia was in the Saint Anne’s Society. She gained quite a reputation as a baker of hickory nut cookies and poppyseed kuchen. People learned to come early or Delia's specialties would be gone. She was known to many as “the cookie lady "and most affectionately called “Grandma Cookie!” 

As her kids got older, and Bernie had some health issues, Delia realized that she needed to find a paying job.   She worked for her sister Arlene in the kitchen at Schmidty’s Bar. When Arlene needed another waitress, Delia jumped at the chance.  She immediately liked it so much that it became her career. Her natural friendliness fit the job perfectly and there was time to fit in a few jokes and stories, which helped her take home extra tip money.  Eventually she transferred to the Cerise Club and continued her career for 25 years. She also enjoyed cooking at home, and took pride in serving lovely, delicious food for Bernie and the whole family.  

She not only worked hard, but she also played hard. She enjoyed competition in many forms.  She was active in local bowling leagues, and she was really a fanatic about golf.  She played with a woman’s group she organized for many years and won more than twenty tournament trophies, showing people that she truly knew how to play the game. She and Bernie would even drive to Florida to play some rounds in winter.  She also loved playing euchre, a favorite family card game that she played all her life. Still bringing home the two dollar cash prize into her eighties and nineties, playing every week, especially when The Senior Center was open. She was still looking for Euchre games even after she turned 100. 

Bernie and Delia had a devoted marriage taking care of each other in sickness and in health for almost 70 years.   Delia was able to live by herself for about ten years, in the duplex Bernie had built.  She made new friends wherever she went, and most who met her did not quickly forget her. She loved to tell stories and was not afraid to step forward in a public setting and tell jokes which would soon have the audience laughing and applauding. When she began to have trouble living alone, she agreed to move into Hearten House where she quickly found a role for herself as a volunteer social director and assistant choir director. Many people have come forward to tell us how much they miss her already. 

Like so many Hundts, Delia is survived by a large family. Of course, we were all saddened by the loss of Janine in 2017, but Delia is survived by her other four children Rod Bina(Coletta Mulvihill Bina), Gloria Sampson (John Sampson); Mark Bina, and Kathy Fitzsimmons (Greg Harwood). She also has seven grandchildren: Kelly, Sean, Colette, and Gabrielle; Todd; Kevin & Craig. She has even more great grandchildren: Lizzie & Nikki; Ava; Seamus & Esme; Alex, Petra & Mila; Broc, Cole & Ashleigh;  Colin, Alex, & Leah; and Bennett, Brooks, & Palmer (PJ) and even great great grandsons Briar and Rhys. She is also survived by her brother Arnie (Madonna deceased), the last of the Hundt siblings, and sisters in law Margaret Bahr and Mary Bina. 

She was preceded in death by her husband, Bernard and her daughter Janine(Jane). Also preceding her were 11 siblings, Marie (Peter) Schmidt, Mabel (Walter) Cavadini, Bernie (Kate) Hundt, Kay (Ray) Moon, Irene Martinek, Emil (Tillie) Hundt, Josie (La Mont) Clements, Sally Oswalt, Pete (Bernice) Hundt, Dave (Marcie) Hundt, Delores (George) Altoff and Arlene (Norbert) Schmidt. Brothers in law Thomas, Leo, James and Joseph Bina .  

The family would like to thank her extended family, friends, her Holy Trinity family, her amazing neighbors and the staff at Hearten House II for the excellent, compassionate care, especially these last few difficult weeks.  

A funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 AM, on Friday, April 26, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 1333 So. 13^th St., La Crosse, WI. Visitation will begin at 9:00 a.m. until time of service. Rev. Rick Roberts will officiate. A eulogy will begin at 10:50 AM before Mass on Friday.