Terry Lynn (Lerdall) Fitterer

Terry Lynn (Lerdall) Fitterer, age 66, of Mankato, died on March 2, 2019 at Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato.

Celebration of Life Service will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, June 7, 2019 at the Northview – North Mankato Mortuary, 2060 Commerce Drive, North Mankato. Visitation will be held for one hour prior to the service on Friday.

Terry Lynn, the daughter of Warren and Norma (Suserud) Lerdall, was born on June 7, 1952 in Mankato. She graduated from Mankato High School. Terry married Mike Fitterer and they later divorced. Together they owned and operated PJ’s Liquor and Bronze Babies, both of North Mankato. They also had a race horse named Key Largo. Terry enjoyed her red Trans Am Firebird and writing poetry. She met Lou Hamel and they were engaged to be married.

She is survived by her sister, Linda (Ken) Wilmes of Mankato; lifelong friends, Connie and Pat Huettl of North Mankato; uncle, Robert (Katerina) Suserud of Florida; aunt, Rose Suserud of Good Thunder; and many beloved cousins, other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her grandparents; parents; pet sister, Baby Buffy; fiancé, Lou Hamel; her beloved dogs, Bebe, Pumpkin and Ally; and aunts and uncles.

In Terry’s words “I live on through my poetry. I'm a long-standing writer and poet from MN. I have been published for humor columns in newspapers, periodicals, children's magazines, Poet's Market and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. I have also been a winner of the World Wide Poetry contest--a triumph for me in my old age!  If I can make just ONE person laugh, it's worth the blood, sweat and tears brought to me in writing something.”

“My Life As It Was”

Witty and charming, that’s what she was,

But some do not think so and that was because,

She wrote like the wind and could rhyme like a pro,

And write of her fantasy’s-memories of past,

They’d try for a minute, be it wouldn’t last,

They never could conquer a poet’s strange land,

She’s buried beneath with a pen in her hand!

                      Terry Fitterer