Randy Katke

Randall Carl Katke, also known as Katman to many, age 53, passed away peacefully in his home Sept. 6th, 2018.  Mass of Christian Burial will be held Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 11 AM at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Milaca with Father James Remmerswaal, OSC officiating.  Interment will follow at St. Mary’s Cemetery.  Visitation will be from 4 – 8 PM Friday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church and 1 hour prior to the service at the church on Saturday.

He was born on July 30th, 1965 to Roland and Marion (Johnson) Katke. He graduated from Milaca High School in 1984 and later attended Pipestone Technical College where he studied to become a meat cutter. Randy began his meat cutting career at Red Owl Grocery Store in Red Wing then moved to Jubaas Super Valu in Willmar. In 1986, he went on to work at Dombrovski Meats in Foley for 11 years before moving to Coborns where he was the assistant meat manager.

Randy grew up on a dairy farm and spent many hours working in the barn, on a tractor, and in the fields. When it came time for him to milk the cows he often would start a game of Cat and Mouse with his parents. 4-H was a program that Randy was actively involved with, he would regularly show the the calves. While in high school Randy was a multi-sport athlete; he was the kicker and center for the football team, he played basketball, ran track, and was a pitcher for his varsity team starting in the 9th grade. Randy also would spend many years bowling with his father on a Milaca bowling league. Something not a lot of people know about Randy was that he was an excellent ping pong player. He was also teaching himself how to play harmonica. 

Once Randy had purchased his own place he had followed in his father’s footsteps where he began farming beef cattle and pigs. Unfortunately, the pigs became too much of a hassle and continued to escape so he sent them away and decided he would never again work with pigs. When it came to the cows, one of them always seemed to find their way out so Randy found himself rounding it up. Eventually, Randy decided to get rid of the cattle leaving him with a number of kittens to which he cared for as he did every other animal that made their way into his life. Randy grew up with his dog Lassie, and continued to have dogs for the entirety of his life, he was such a softie. He currently has Angel and Dozer. Randy, being very close to his animals often shared moments of smiles and laughter with them. For instance, Dozer, a St.Bernard, would always wait until Randy got out of the shower and was relaxing on the couch; from there Dozer would drink a bunch of water and slobber all over Randy, who with such a kind heart would laugh it off and hug Dozer.

As much as Randy loved his animals, nothing came close to the love that he had for his wife, Brandi. They met at a party in 1988 and he was introduced by their dear friend Melanie Hjort. The official date to the beginning of their relationship was in January of 1989. Randy, was never one to rush anything because he loved to sit back and enjoy the present. In fact, he loved living in the present so much that it took him six and a half years to ask Brandi to marry him. On June 10th, 1995 Randy married his soul mate. He was such a romantic that at his wedding, Brandi and him decided that they wanted to be married by two priests so they would receive a double blessing. Randy had so much love for his wife that he wanted to ensure that their marriage would last. The two of them had an exciting honeymoon in Montana where they ran into a moose. Randy had two compound fractures and a broken wrist so they found themselves in the hospital for two days. Not to mention he got some extra time off of work. Randy and Brandi loved to go dancing, playing softball, volleyball, spending time outdoors, but most of all loved spending time with family and friends.

In December of 1996, Randy and Brandi had their first daughter, Zoey Marie. Two years later, they had another wonderful daughter, Kalysta Mary. His two girls were the life light of Randy; he was always spending time with them, joking, playing, getting manicures, pedicures, and just being silly with them. Randy supported his daughters above everything else. He always made sure that he was at their sporting events and dance competitions (where he was often the only dad and got to spend time with all the moms, quite the ladies man I tell you). His daughters were involved with Girl Scouts so he would spend a lot of time driving to events and dressing up in crazy costumes. The love that he had for his daughters was insurmountable and of which they will never forget.

Randy loved spending time with his family, but also made time to be with his friends. He even regularly would include both of them in his activities. For many years Randy had played co-ed volleyball and softball with Brandi and had a league that consisted of some of his closest friends. Often the guys would find themselves in some kind of trouble when they weren't playing ball, some might even say they were too old to play. Instead they would take an annual trip to Birch Bay where the group would rent a cabin with their wives and get into all kinds of shenanigans. Some of the activities they participated in was redneck scrabble, card games, crazy golf cart driving and maybe just a few EJ sevens. They had so much fun on and off the golf course.

Not only did Randy make sure that he was actively involved with Zoey and Kalysta's activities, but he made sure he made time for the rest of his families events as well. He would always make sure he made it to see his nieces and nephews pursue their passions as well, whether it would be watching Matt play baseball, Jen play softball, Nicole and Kelsey play basketball, and Josh with his music. Randy took a long trip to watch Josh play his first show ever in his heavy metal band The Disaster Radius. He spoke about how it was a unique experience and very loud. Quite the opposite of what he was used to. Randy always made sure that he supported anybody that he cared about because he was a loving and caring person.

One thing that Randy enjoyed was the calming presence of nature. He was a hunter and a fisherman but it never bothered him if he didn't get the deer or catch the fish. There were places that he loved and would say that the woods kept him calm and gave him a sense of well-being. That didn't however take away the sport of getting that deer. Randy and his buddy, Jesse Heinen, would always take the day to make deer sticks if one of them happened to get the deer. His girls loved them so much that they would eat them all up immediately and they would never last the winter. Randy also recently took up playing golf with his good friends and neighbors Bob Alley and Chuck Norman. They created a clever nickname for themselves, The Birdie Boys from Bock.

Every year Randy would take a trip to Canada with his dad Ron, brother John, best friend Ropey and a few others. He always came home with crazy stories about what kind of trouble they would get into. Oddly enough there were not a lot of “catching fish stories” which is what they went up there for in the first place. Those pesky bottle bass were extremely bothersome on the week he found himself in Canada.

Camping was another regular activity that him and his family, and even those he considered family (DeBoer's, Christiansen's, Roelef's, Hanson's, and a few more) would do regularly. While camping they played bean bags, went fishing, told tall tales, had a few cocktails, and shared many laughs. One time, Randy forgot all of his clothes so all the ladies at camp gave him things to wear. He was a good sport about it and trust me, he never forgot his clothes again.

Randy was a kind hearted social butterfly that would do anything for anyone at anytime. He would come home with stories to tell his family about his day. More often than not he would tell the story where he received a kiss from a little old lady of whom he made their day. He could always be found behind the counter at work singing with a big old smile on his face. He was a man who always put his family, friends, and faith before himself. His level of caring is second to none and he will forever be in our hearts.

Randall Katke is survived by his wife Brandi, his children Zoey (boyfriend - Crosby) and Kalysta, his brother and sisters John (Joyce) Katke, Cynthia (David) Zidar, and Christina Katke, nieces and nephews, Nicole (Christopher) Wourms, Kelsey Katke (boyfriend - Josef), Matthew Zidar (girlfriend - Sabrina), Joshua (Ashley) Zidar, Jennifer Zidar, Hannah (Ryan) Rogers, Sarah Garvey, and his great niece Quinn Wourms.

Randy was preceded in death by his parents Roland and Marion Katke, mother-in-law Fern Garvey, and father-in-law John “Red” Garvey.