LaVerne Binstock

On the evening of August 9, 2025, LaVerne entered through the gate’s of heaven at the age of 88 at Benedictine Living Community.

A memorial mass will be held on August 18 at 10:30 am at Bismarck Funeral Home with Monsignor Gene Lindemann as celebrant. Visitation will be held from 9-10 am on Monday, with a rosary starting at 10 am.

LaVerne was born on March 19, 1937 to Isabella and Leo Fitterer in Dickinson, ND. She was raised on the family farm near Schefield, ND.

On October 17, 1956 she married the love of her life Gordon Binstock at St. Pius Catholic Church in Schefield, ND. After their marriage they moved to a farm near Steele where they lived for a few years. Throughout their marriage they moved to multiple small towns in ND, spending the early years in Elgin. In the 1980’s they purchased the current family farm near McKenzie. Throughout their marriage they also lived in Missoula, Montana and Seattle, Washington. LaVerne and Gordon have two children, Renee and Rodney.

LaVerne lived a very simple life, where her greatest joy was her family. She was a true care taker for them and took immense pride in it. She was so proud of her children and grandchildren. As a true caretaker, she enjoyed gardening, canning, cooking, baking, and caring for various farm animals, especially her pigs, pale calves, and kitties. Spring time was her favorite time of year because it meant planting her garden and flowers and being able to watch the new baby calves run around in the pasture in the spring sunshine.

As LaVerne aged she found a new hobby of embroidering dish towels by hand, making homemade jewelry, and sewing. She and Gordon also spent a lot of their time traveling throughout the state with their friends to polka dances.

Anyone could stop by her house and would not leave with an empty stomach. LaVerne was an astounding cook and always had some kind of homemade dessert on the counter. One thing she didn’t particularly care to make, but would make because her granddaughters would request it, “panicakes”. She would make these quite a few times in the summer because she watched her granddaughters, Kaitlyn and Tara, when they were young. This allowed the three of them to spend a lot of time together and have plenty of time to cause trouble, but also learning life lessons from grandma. There wasn’t a day that the three of them didn’t do some kind of crazy thing. A lot of the memories include kitties and going to town to visit Walmart or “Walmark” as she would call it and the various Dollar Stores throughout Bismarck/Mandan.

LaVerne is going to be deeply missed by her entire family, but we all find peace knowing she is with Gordon, her mom and dad, and siblings again. Days before she died, she said she was so ready to see her Gordon again.

She is survived by her daughter, Renee Johnson; son Rodney (Wanda) Binstock, their children Casey (Jaryn) Schlosser, Kaitlyn Rath, Tara (fiancé Devin Retterrath) Binstock; two great grandchildren, Owen Rath and William Schlosser; her sister, Linda (Roger) Portscheller; her brothers, Ronald (Patti) Fitterer and Richard (Cindy) Fitterer; sisters- in- law, Gladys Zastoupil and Jane Fitterer

She was proceeded in death by her husband, Gordon Binstock; her parents, Isabella and Leo Fitterer; siblings, Robert Fitterer, Loretta Bezdicek, Leona Kanski, Luella Weber; parents in law, Anton and Mildred Binstock; brothers- in- law, Norbert Zastoupil, Lester Christmann, Leonard Bezdicek, Raymond Binstock; sisters- in- law, Lorraine Binstock and Shirley Christmann.

We would like to send out a heartfelt thank you to the staff at Benedictine Living Community and Sanford Health’s Hospice. They all cared for LaVerne with true love and compassion.