Obituaries

Earl Walter Kinvig passed away suddenly from heart failure on Monday, April 8, 2024 while getting ready to start his day. He’d been active with family on the weekend and showed no signs that it would be his last. He would be the first to say he lived a full and happy 85 years.

He was born to Edwin and Mamie Kinvig on February 19, 1939 and raised on a farm south of Gray. He attended school at Buck Lake, then Gray, and finally Balfour Collegiate. There was no time for grade 12 with the demands of the farm calling.

During the winters he drove delivery trucks, worked for service stations, and made curling ice at Prince Albert Curling Club and St. George’s in Toronto. While a well-known story teller, he would only share small snippets of his adventures as a wild and carefree bachelor. If only the walls of the old Elks Hall could talk!

He became a husband to Connie and a father to Danny and Darren in 1972. They built a home at the family farm north of Milestone. Daughter Amy later completed the family of five. Fatherhood was his happy place. He could transition from singing You Are My Sunshine while using a toy frying pan as a guitar, to dealing with motorcycles and go-carts with ease. He was never too busy to play a board game or take a Suburban full of kids to a sporting event.

His nieces and nephews will tell you he took similar joy in his role as Uncle Earl. He effortlessly created treasured memories for so many. Some were given funny nicknames, some shared great times on the farm, and some continued to build great memories long into adulthood.

Grandchildren were his dream come true. He could hold them for hours; sing songs and dance; pop out his false teeth; build toys according to their specifications; play games by their rules; entertain their friends; take them to horse sales, Farm Progress Shows and Agribitions; and tell endless stories of his love for them. He was thrilled that they all got to know him before he grew up!

Earl was always happy to help with working the ticket booth at the old rink, serving as a member of the local and divisional school boards, and carving turkeys for fowl suppers. He spent many hours with his father-in-law, laughing and loving their experiences building things, fishing, or playing cards. Winning a fold-down trailer in 1971 started a journey of many summers spent enjoying the outdoors. Many trips were made to Cranbrook, BC to visit his beloved sister Phyllis and her family.

He farmed with his brother Tom from the time they were old enough to handle machinery. Theirs was an indescribable partnership built on friendship, love, and patience. Earl began work as a field adjuster for Crop Insurance out of the Balgonie office in 1990. After a heart attack in 1996, he transitioned to being a field supervisor out of the Weyburn office where he worked until his retirement in 2004. He could have written a book with his many stories of staring down dogs and calming angry customers. He could tell you the name of every farmer for miles around. Earl loved the job and gained so much from his co-workers and time with customers.

Having no desire to slow down in retirement, he jumped right in to teaching woodworking for 4H, helping at Carrington Court, taking centre stage at Milestone Prairie Players dinner theatres, travelling to Whitehorse, YK to spend time with Darren’s family, and helping neighbours. He got back into the field with Greg Diekrager in 2007. This gave Earl a new purpose, a new friend to talk to, and a new set of kids to laugh with. They became family.

If Earl hadn’t been a farmer, he surely would have been a full-time carpenter. Projects could be as simple as building a bunk house for Danny and Darren and a playhouse for Amy, to adding a second level on the family home, or building a new house in Milestone in 1999. With immense pride he built barns and garages with his sons, a grandson, and a nephew. He loved being called upon to provide advice or do odd jobs. Anyone lucky enough to visit his shop behind the garage knew it was his haven. If you stopped in for a visit, you likely found him building urns; fixing or building something for Connie or a neighbour; or restocking his wooden toy, trinket box, and wooden ring supply so no child or adult would leave empty handed.

Earl would eat horseradish until his glasses slid down his nose; do easy crosswords because they made him feel smart; allow kids to drive as soon as they could reach the pedals; teach his father-in-law to play crib; eat at least three hot dogs; volunteer to drive people to appointments in Regina – who were often younger than him; adore his animals; dread driving near the edge of a mountain or a lake; take his first level of swim lessons in his forties; organize family fishing trips to Loon Lake; loudly sing Home on the Range while on a trail ride; run a grandchild out to the street to watch the train go by; play rock paper scissors to delay having to get into cold lake water; savour icy squares, matrimonial cake, and ice cream; drive motorcycles and school buses; listen to CKRM with Willy, Fred and the Flea Market; allow you to guess the value of his pocket change and let you keep it if you were within 25 cents; pretend he had a frog in his hands at the pool and squirt water at any child who leaned in to see it; fall asleep in seconds – sometimes mid-conversation; awake completely refreshed after a 2 minute nap; eat pickles daily; tell you the exact day they bought the DC4 tractor (April 5, 1952); always say yes to a Tim’s hot chocolate; say he ‘let you win’ the card game; collect jackknives and carpenter pencils; jive at least one dance with Connie while chaperoning the school dances; use the skidoo or tractor to ensure kids didn’t miss school; go on three or four walks in town each day; talk your ear off at the post office; drive around and around a parking lot to find the best spot; say “I’ve probably told you this story 11D700 (pronounced yelevendy seven hundred) times”, but then tell it anyway…

Earl was predeceased by his parents Edwin and Mamie Kinvig; parents-in-law Marinus and Johanna Santbergen; brothers John and Tom Kinvig; great-granddaughter Lily; in-laws Henry Arnold, Jack (Joan) Santbergen, Jerry Santbergen, and Joe Santbergen.

Left to carry on Earl’s stories and his love for life are his wife of 51 years, Connie; children Danny (Heidi), Darren (Leanne), Amy (Victor); grandchildren Kyle, Jake, Ben, Rachel, Emily, Morgan; great-grandchild Loghan; special friends Greg, Laurel, Dawson, Eric and Ashley Diekrager; sister Phyllis; and numerous cherished in-laws, nieces, nephews, friends and neighbours.

A service to Celebrate Earl’s life will be held in the Milestone Alliance Church, 232 Main St., Milestone, SK at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, 2024. Livestreaming of the Celebration of life will be available to be viewed at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1932190297237346/. Refreshments will be served afterwards at the Masonic Hall in Milestone.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Soo Line Ambulance Association, Box 494, Milestone, SK, S0G 3L0.