James Berning

Jim was born on March 27, 1941, in Cresco, Iowa to Darroll and Elvira (Scheevel) Berning. He grew up on the family farm in Fillmore County, Minnesota, where his great-grandfather James Berning settled in 1875. He was the firstborn of three boys. His family were members of the reformed church of America, in Green Leafton, Minnesota. He attended the Bristol Grove one room country school, just as his grandfather Friend A. Berning and father Darrell B. Berning had done.

He learned to drive the tractor and help with farm work when he was 6 years old, and his father taught him to fish at 6yo and hunt squirrels at 9yo, and he loved every minute of these activities! He did not enjoy milking cows, cleaning, gutters, and pens, so much! But he did it all until he graduated from Harmony high school in Harmony, Minnesota in 1959.
 Jim would be quick to tell you his greatest memory from high school was the Harmony Cardinals being undefeated in football when he was a senior, a goal he and 13 other classmates set when they were freshmen.

The summer after graduation, Jim and his best friend Larry Hovey, worked for a building contractor, in the Fall, he went to building construction classes at Dunwoody Industrial Institute, in Minneapolis, MN. The next year, he went to work for a home builder in Greeley, Colorado.

After he moved back to Minnesota, he met and married the lady who would make him the best person he could possibly be in 1961. They became the parents of Renee, Richard and Robin. He then spent the next 21 years in Cresco, Iowa, building and remodeling homes and stores. Also, during those years, he enjoyed playing fast pitch softball. And he continued to enjoy hunting and fishing!

In 1970 Jim and longtime friend and business partner, Lynn Wemark, went to Wyoming deer hunting and from then on in October, Wyoming was a priority! Joan joined in on the hunting trips as the children got older.

When all three children graduated. Jim and Joan sold their home and moved to Buffalo, Wyoming in 1982. They sold their home and business, the Hi-Way Inn (that they owned together with longtime friend Lynn Wemark), and they moved to a small acreage NW of Buffalo, Wyoming. There they built a log home together.

Jim worked for a couple of builders in the area for a short time and then started Berning Construction. He built and remodeled homes, and also built many custom cabinets in his shop. Jim fully retired at 75 y.o.

He felt he was blessed to have lived at the foot of the Big Horn mountains with Joan and to have made so many wonderful friends. He was a member of the Summit Wesleyan church in Buffalo. He enjoyed doing small carpentry jobs for the church. His favorite time was breakfast with Joan on Sunday mornings after church. He loved visits from his children, grand children and great-grandchildren.

Jim left here heaven bound on March 19th, 2025, 8 days before his 84th birthday.

He is preceded in death by parents: Darrel and Elvira Berning, grandparents: Friend and Goldie Berning and Elmer and Marie Scheevel and his brother Charles Berning He is survived by wife: Joan Berning, children: Renee and Micheal Corrigan, Richard Berning, Robin Berning, grandchildren: Nicholas & Melissa Vlasak, Ashlee Lepa, Raelyn & Earl Ramey, Alexis Berning and great-grandchildren: Austin Hechko, and Eliisa and Ruby Ramey and his brother: Lester Berning.

A Celebration Of Life will be held to honor the life of Jim Berning on Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 10:00 am at the Summit Church in Buffalo, WY with a Reception to immediately follow the service.

Online condolences may be written at www.kanefuneral.com. Champion Kane Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements.