Else (Elsie) Margaretha (Margaret) Zunti (Greter), beloved wife of Joseph Walter Zunti, was making her 95th orbit of the sun from a bed at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, the date of her 66th Wedding Anniversary. At 6:24 AM she, her soul and God agreed it was time for her life in this realm to end.
Elsie was born and raised on the family farm south and a little west of Holy Rosary Church, south of Reward, SK., on June 14, 1931 to Jacob and Clara (Ereiser) Greter. She went to elementary school at a country school called Deer Lodge, then to Salvador for high school. Her final year of high school was at a private Catholic girl’s school in Leipzig, SK. After high school she attended Normal School where she made some life long friends.
For the next six years Elsie taught at several country schools in rural Saskatchewan. She then taught at Sandy Bay for a year, and in Calgary, Alberta for two years.
In 1959 she returned to Saskatchewan to marry Walter whom she shared life with for nearly 2/3rds of a century. Until they retired and moved to Saskatoon to reside in Columbia Place she lived the life of a farm wife.
Elsie found joy in nature, loved to garden, loved flowers and enjoyed baking and cooking. She also loved hosting Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving dinner celebrations doing almost all the work herself when her grandchildren were in their early years.
Elsie was always very hospitable, respectful to all, believed in the social gospel and social justice, and had a deep and abiding faith. She was active in the Catholic Women’s League in Luseland, New Democratic Party, and supported Walter in his efforts to preserve the Saskatchewan farming way of life as it then was through the Saskatchewan and then National Farmer’s Union. More than once she participated in the anti-cruise missile protests that took place in Saskatoon in the 1980’s and in Pro-Life events.
She also loved to take part in Saskatoon Swiss Club events.
One of her favourite pastimes was playing card games like Jass, 500, and Bridge, and Cribbage with Walter when they were home alone together. She also loved to sing, in church choirs first at Holy Rosary and then Blessed Eugene de Mazenod in Luseland, and with family and friends around a camp fire at their farm. After their move to Columbia Place in Saskatoon she and Walter sang or played cards with friends and family who came to visit, and sometimes with the friends they made there.
Elsie is survived by her husband Walter, her sister Emily whom she was very close to, her sister-in-law Agnes Zunti (Lukan), son Jacob (Teresita) and their children Riel, Clara (Noah Bates) and Ilsa (boyfriend Owyn) whom she was very proud of, chosen son James Thomas, and his sons Jesse and Tyler, many nieces and nephews and the children and grandchildren of her nieces and nephews.
Elsie was predeceased by her parents Jacob and Clara (Ereiser) Greter, brother and sister-in-law Ernie and Rita (Feist) Greter, brother Jackie Greter, her sisters-in-law, Sr. Salesia (Alice Zunti) and Hilda Zunti; sisters and brothers-in-law, Mike and Josephine (Zunti) Dietrich, Louise (Zunti) and Joe Zimmer, Casper and Mary Zunti (Dietrich) and Aline (Rousseau/Lacoursiere), Clara (Zunti) and Marcel Croteau; Dorothy (Zunti) and Marcel Lukan, brother-in-law Frank Zunti; nieces Alice Zunti and Cathy (Catherine Zimmer) Broten, and nephews-in-law Lou Leray and Dwight Abernethy.
During the course of her life Else came to be called Elsie and others knew and addressed her as such. Or sometimes as Elsa.
Vigil Prayers at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Saskatoon on Tuesday July 22nd at 7 PM; Funeral Mass on Wednesday July 23rd at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Saskatoon at 11:00 AM.; Internment at Holy Rosary Shrine cemetery south of Reward and North of the Zunti family homestead on Saturday, July 26th at 4:30 PM.
Please make memorial donations to Holy Rosary shrine, the Canadian Cancer Society, Lymphoma Canada, Saint Mary’s Parish, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, or Doctors Without Borders.
To share memories of Elsie (Else) or send condolences, please visit: https://tinyurl.run/ElseZunti or https://tinyurl.run/elsiezunti.
A livestream will be available for those wishing to join the family in celebrating the life of Elsie Zunti through saskfunerals.ca.
