Norman and Angeline Kruckenberg

Norman and Angeline Kruckenberg celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary July 2.

The couple were married July 2, 1949, by Monsignor O’Farrell at St. Matthew’s Church.

Norman came to Kalispell in 1946 from Zap, N.D., where his mother and father Herb and Amalia Kruckenberg farmed.

Angeline moved to Kalispell in 1934 with her parents, Harry and Bernadine Kunda, from St. Phillips, Mont. She and her five brothers and sisters attended St. Matthew’s and Flathead County High schools. 

Angie was working at Norm’s News where she met Norman in November 1948. After their marriage, Angeline and Norman became a lifetime team in various business ventures, including NK Trucking, the Husky truck stop in Kalispell, along with managing a fleet of trucks that moved materials across 20 states. In the 1950s, Angie became a distributor for Tupperware in Montana.

In 1963, the Kruckenbergs developed and patented an accounting and tax bookkeeping system that was used by hundreds of small businesses through the years.

In Alaska, the couple operated an Ace Hardware and OK Lumber Co., and designed and built house packages in demand during the Alaska pipeline construction period, as well as the largest truck shop in Fairbanks at that time.

The Kruckenbergs had six children in seven years — three boys and three girls — Raymond, Rosanne, Richard, Regina, Rita and Ronald. They have 12 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.