Judy Janys (Ronning) Lind

Judy J. (Ronning) Markus Lind, 79, died Friday, July 17, 2020, at Solvay House in Duluth due to the insidious and detrimental physiological effects of dementia.

Judy was born in Duluth on March 11, 1941, to Henry and Ada Ronning of Hermantown where she was raised and attended school, graduating in 1959 with honors and the designation “Most Likely to Succeed.” Armed with the secretarial skills she learned in high school (typing, shorthand, filing, bookkeeping), she entered the Duluth workforce as a secretary at a brewery.

Judy married Carl Markus on November 20, 1959, and together they set up housekeeping in Rice Lake Township. She became a stay-at-home mother with the birth of daughter Penny in 1960 with daughter Terri arriving in 1961. In 1962, she re-entered the Duluth workforce, first as a part-time secretary for a mattress manufacturer and then as a full-time personal secretary at a food processing company.

Judy again left the workforce in 1966 to attend to the at-home needs of her family which increased in size in 1969 with the birth of son Larry. During these years, her just-for-fun activities included socializing with her husband Carl and a network of friends who enjoyed gathering at home parties, at taverns with a dance floor and on snowmobile trails in Winter. In the Summer months, she and Carl cruised the open road on a motorcycle and trawled area lakes in a fishing boat, often with the kids.

In 1974, Judy returned to the workforce as a secretary to in a Duluth hospital. Three years later, she left the hospital and went to work for the Duluth school system as a secretary at the Secondary Vocational Center housed in the Marshall School.

When Judy and Carl divorced in 1989, she and her son moved first into a mobile home in a Hermantown trailer park and then into a house in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood of Duluth. In 1992, she began a special relationship with Paul Lind, a single-parent with three nearly grown children who she had worked with for nearly fifteen years. 

Judy and Paul were married on June 11, 1994, and began their life together in his house in the Woodland neighborhood of Duluth. In the Fall of that year, she transferred to a secretarial job in an elementary school in the Duluth school system. Three years later, she and Paul moved into an almost-new house on a rural five-acre lot near Caribou Lake in Grand Lake Township.

Judy retired from Duluth school district in 2003 after twenty-six years of service and joined the ranks of the willingly unemployed with her husband. For nearly two decades, she and Paul enjoyed each other’s company, shared a relaxed lifestyle and cherished the time they spent in the company of family members of all ages. They also shared a mutual interest in auto racing and musical theater, traveling regularly to race events and play performances near and far.

Judy was preceded in death by her parents; brother, Jack Ronning; and sisters, Jan Andler and Vicky Ronning.

Judy is survived by her husband Paul; children, Penny (Jeff) Tarvas, Terri Morneau (Philip Nigh), and Larry (Deb) Markus; grandchildren, Pat (Michelle) Krause, Cassie (Mike) Boston, Crystal Perkins, and Lindsey Perkins; five great-grandchildren; sisters, Jean Brown, LuAnne Hooper, and Susan Lauseng; brother, Jim Ronning; her husband’s children, Bryan Lind (Sheryl Decal), Barbara (Ken) Schlais, and Elizabeth Mayne; and their children Amanda Schlais, Alex Schlais, Abby Schlais, Katelyn Mayne, Lukas Mayne, and Derek Mayne.

 Due to COVID, a private family service will be held.

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