JoAnn Wilma mark

JoAnn (Joni) Wilma Mark, age 85, passed away peacefully on August 27, 2025, at Ecumen in Detroit Lakes after a short battle with lung cancer.

She was born on April 5, 1940, at the home of her parents, John and Wilma (Frikken) Mark in Fergus Falls, MN. She was the youngest of 5 girls. She attended and graduated from Fergus Falls Public High School in 1958 and later she attended the Minnesota Vo-Tech in Detroit Lakes.

After she graduated, she worked at the Detroit Lakes High School library for 33 years before retirement. While she was attending the Vo-Tech she met Stanley Krajsa and they spent almost 60 years together.

Joni enjoyed bowling for many, many years and finished her final season at the age of 85. She rode motorcycle and was an avid CBer in her younger days and enjoyed Street Fairs, Art in the Parks and the Shady Hallow Flea Market when she got a little more “mature”. She was also an avid golfer after retirement. She loved reading, crossword puzzles and watching sports on TV (golf, basketball and her Vikings football). She also had loved her Pomeranians. They brought her great joy and she pampered, adored, and thoroughly doted on each one of them. But the thing she probably enjoyed the most was playing blackjack at the casino. She enjoyed the dealers and pit bosses and they all seemed to enjoy her.

Many of you will remember Joni wearing tie-dyed sweatshirts, her long reddish fingernails and her dangling earrings that went with everything she was wearing.

She was preceded in death by parents, John and Wilma Mark; and her 4 sisters, Corie Rogers, Betty Anderson, Dorothy Moen and Mary Morris.

She is survived by her husband, Stanley Krajsa. Her 3 children, Becky (Norm) Nyland, Dan (Toni) Schelske and Julie (Scott) Anderson-Porter. Her 4 Grandchildren, Justin (Andrea) Nyland, Jennifer (Tim) Jordan, Alex Maves Jordan (Derek) Kurtz and Jeannete Goggin and 4 great-grandchildren, Taegan and Tanner Jordan and Lynk and Korbyn Nyland.

A Celebration of Her Life will be held, in an open house style, at the American Legion in Detroit Lakes on Saturday, September 13, 2025, from 1:00 PM until 5:00 PM.

In lieu of flowers, she would like donations given to your local Human Society or the American Legion Auxiliary.