The Storekeeper's Daughter: A Memoir

by Katie Funk Wiebe

This book is OUT OF PRINT from the publisher. In this classic memoir, Katie Funk Wiebe shares her journey from childhood through adulthood and back to embrace a once-distant past.

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1997

About the author

For more then sixty years, Katie Funk Wiebe has given voice to her thoughts while sitting alone at her typewriter. She has been particularly adept at opening up her life to others and "wrapping words" around her questions, doubts, and struggles. In doing so, she invites her readers not only to listen but to recognize themselves in her stories. She has long believed that the way to keep people alive is by telling their stories. She tells family stories, and encourages others to do this also.

In addition to being an author, biographer, editor, columnist and essayist, Katie Funk Wiebe
is a speaker, preacher, pioneer, prophet, provocateur, feminist, historian and influential Mennonite. In 2000 The Mennonite named her one of twenty Mennonite Writers who have had “the most powerful influence on life and belief of the General Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Church in the 20th century."

In her retirement years she has written and spoken about church and family history, women's issues and aging.

She has written more than two thousand articles, columns and book reviews, and has written or edited more than twenty books. Her most recent books are "My Emigrant Father: Jacob J. Funk, 1896-1986" (2015), a biography of her father; and "A Strong Frailty: Agneta Janzen Block: Heroine of the faith in the former Soviet Union" (2014). She currently revising and updating her practical and encouraging 2009 book, "How to Write Your Personal and Family History: If you don't do it, who will?", due out from Skyhorse Publishing in February 2017.

She was born in northern Saskatchewan to German-Russian Mennonite immigrant parents. In 1962 she came to Kansas with her husband and children. Her husband died shortly thereafter. She taught at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, for 24 years, retiring in 1990 as professor emeritus.

She is the mother of four children: Joanna K. Wiebe, Susan H. Wiebe, Christine R. Wiebe (2000), and James Wiebe; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Reviews

[Sheri Hathaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the same book that I read with a different title. The title I read was called "My Emigrant Father", published in 2015 by Kindred Productions. It is a compelling memoire of Jacob J. Funk's life, Katie's father. She explains much of Mennonite culture which, for someone of non-Mennonite background, I found fascinating but also reveals the suffering endured through the Russian Revolution and we don't ever want to forget what happened there and how much Canada meant to a refugee of that era. Life growing up in Canada was so different but not without its challenges, too.

[Cholet Kelly Josue]

A tell of inheritance, sacrifices, honor, respect, duty , and love of family, ect... This story has been told 360 million times in the colorful tapestry of what is 'America.' Most Americans have for origins , ancestors who forged new beginnings, leaving their home country, and everything behind, with only hopes, and dreams, and good value systems, and courage, and courage.

The 'old timeless universal truths of the heart' that Faulkner talked about: honor , pity, compassion, duty, respect, pride, and sacrifices, and courage, ect... without which humanity is doomed.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always searching for information about Russian Mennonites...my ancestors.

[Shirley]

Book club book. A little disjointed.