Marjorie Corrine “Connie” Brunelle, a longtime resident of Riverside whose family has owned the Dairy Queen on California Avenue in Riverside for more than 60 years, recently celebrated her 100th birthday.
She was born Aug. 21, 1925, in Tillamook, Ore., to William and Mary Lehnherr, the second of their three children. Her relatives had traveled to Oregon as part of the Donner party, and her great-grandfather founded the town of Myrtle Point, Ore., according to an email from her family.
During her childhood, the family moved to Minnesota, where she graduated from Park Rapids High School and Mankato State Teachers College (now Minnesota State University, Mankato).
She taught for one year, and she met her future husband, Albert Joseph Brunelle, while on a train when he was returning home in 1945 after serving in the U.S. Army. They were married Feb. 17, 1947.
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Connie Brunelle of Riverside celebrates her 100th birthday at a surprise party Aug. 16, 2025, a few days before her birthday. (Photo by Chuck Hall)
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Connie Brunelle of Riverside celebrates her 100th birthday at a surprise party Aug. 16, 2025, a few days before her birthday. (Photo by Chuck Hall)
After selling the family grocery store, her husband, with his sister and brother-in-law Lu and Herb Warner, decided to franchise and build Dairy Queens in Minnesota. Connie and Albert Brunelle built a Dairy Queen in Fairmont, Minn., and later had a second store in Blue Earth, according to the family’s email.
By the late 1950s, Lu and Herb Warner had Dairy Queens in Riverside and offered the Brunelles the management and later the purchase of one of those stores, according to the family’s email and a 2018 Press-Enterprise story about the family’s Dairy Queen business.
Connie Brunelle and her sister-in-law ran the Dairy Queens while their husbands built and owned a motel in Burbank, according to the family’s email. One of her grandchildren now owns the Dairy Queen on California Avenue.
Over the years, she worked with her husband in each business venture, and in retirement, she and her husband traveled in their RV to Mexico, Alaska and all the lower 48 states, according to the family’s email. They also traveled internationally.
Her husband died in 2019 at the age of 95, after 72 years of marriage.
Her current activities include gardening and playing cards. She played tennis until she was 70, and over the years she has also golfed, bowled and waterskied, among other activities, according to the family’s email.
Her family held a surprise birthday party for her a few days before her birthday, in the clubhouse at Riverside Country Club Mobile Home Park.
Her daughter Theresa Reinhardt of Riverside hosted the party, and her other four children were among the more than 50 who attended. They are Patricia Robbins of Leeds, Utah, and Elizabeth Hall, Marjorie Moreno and Kathryn Jardine, all of Riverside.
In addition to her five daughters, she has 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Her extended family is very important to her, and she has been “a strong, quiet and steady influence on her girls and grandchildren,” according to the family’s email.
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