Odile "Sunny' Netko Age 94, passed away peacefully in her sleep Aug. 22, 2018. Born to Adelord and Anne Gendreau in Little Falls, Minn., Jan. 23, 1924, she was her father's sidekick and as a girl enjoyed dancing, playing piano, gardening, fishing and collecting butterflies. She loved caring for her twin sisters, who were born when she was 12.

After high school, Sunny became a registered nurse and married Robert "Bob'' Netko Jan. 4, 1947, when he returned from the Pacific, where he served in the Navy. In the following 11 years, she bore four boys and three girls and harvested her large vegetable garden to prepare nutritious meals, while also treating her family to scrumptious pies, cookies and pecan cinnamon rolls. Sunny was a certified Master Gardener and officer and longtime member of numerous garden clubs including the Soil and Sunshine Garden Club, the Iris Society and the Rock Garden Society. She competed in flower shows and at the State Fair, winning many ribbons. Professionally, she was a charge nurse and much-appreciated caregiver on the surgical wards of Unity and Mercy hospitals, whose floors she strode fetchingly. Recreationally, while at the family cabin on Rush Lake on the Whitefish Chain, she was a passionate seeker of sunnies and crappies.

When Bob died in 2010, Sunny moved to daughter, Sylvia, and son-in-law Jim Kosloski's farm, where she happily tended flowers and a menagerie of dogs, cats, donkeys, cows, calves, ducklings and chicks.

Sunny kept her wit, gift of gab and humor to the end. She will be dearly missed by all, including children Robert; Sylvia (Jim) Kosloski; Dan (Jean); Rick (Pat); Jim (Margi); Patrice (Paul) Aubrecht; and Janice (Dennis) Anderson; 18 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and sisters Jeanne Carley and Judy Finch. Preceded in death by her parents; husband Bob; sisters Elaine and Dorothy; and beloved granddaughter Hannah Kosloski. Mass of Christian Burial Tuesday, September 25, 2018, 10:30 a.m. at Camp Ripley Chapel, 15000 Hwy. 15, Little Falls. Interment at noon in Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, 15550 Hwy. 115, Little Falls, followed by lunch at Little Falls VFW, 1210 3rd Ave. N.E., Little Falls. Many thanks to staff at Heritage House of Milaca and St. Croix Hospice. Memorials preferred to Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, www.fslf.org or St. Croix Hospice, www.stcroixhospice.com.