Loretta Heinert, 81, went to be with her Lord & Jesus on Friday, July 10, 2026

A Funeral Service will start at 11 a.m., Friday, July 17, at Eastgate Funeral Service, 3117 E Century Ave, with a visitation starting one hour prior to the service. 

Burial will be held at Fairview Cemetery.

Loretta was born on December 3, 1944, in Bismarck, ND to Roy & Clara (Roehrich) Heinert. Her mom had a difficult pregnancy. Loretta was born early and faced challenges of mental deficiency. As a young child she was placed in Grafton State School where she was taught manners, basic life skills, and housekeeping, which later enabled her to live in Hruby Adult Foster Home for 40 years in Wilton, ND and worked at Redwood Village a basic care facility.

Loretta worked there until her early 60's when her hip replacement surgery forced early retirement. This also made it difficult for Loretta to continue residing in Wilton and in 2016 she moved into an ENABLE/PRIDE residence in Mandan until her passing.

Loretta loved life! A Few of her favorites were: people, dancing, dogs, sun tanning, food (Favorite foods included chicken, mashed potatoes, brownies, and ice cream), Medora, road trips/vacations, coloring books, and tv shows, especially Polka Time.

Her life was simple and everyone who met her was taken in by her sweet nature. She acquired many friends while in Wilton. Everyone there knew she was special and took her under their wings and became her "family at heart." She was included in many graduations, weddings, dances, picnics, and parades.

She gained many more new friends while under the care of ENABLE/PRIDE, Inc., where they took her to dances, bowling, movies, zoos, road trips to Medora, and numerous other places. Her last road trip was to Strasburg to visit the Lawrence Welk Museum. We’ve been told her family are "Shirt Tail" relatives.

Her Wilton group home providers (Jeanie) also took Loretta to many places including Medora, Minot State Fair, mpls, to name but a few.

Loretta's family also took her on trips which included trips to Montana to visit her three brothers and their children: Badlands, Yellowstone, Medora, Fargo, Canada and even Phoenix, AZ, where she got to attend the 2001 World Series in the Chase Field parking lot where we tailgated to the NY Yankees vs. AZ Diamondbacks game. She told everyone that she attended the World "Serious" and the "Black Diamonds" won—too cute! On that same trip she saw the Grand Canyon and visited Nogales, Mexico. She had so many great experiences and memories!

She is survived by her brother, Ken (Sandy) Heinert of Great Falls, MT; sisters, Mary Ashley (Heinert) McGuyvr and Kathie (Reed) Overson, both of Bismarck; and many nieces, nephews, great- and great-great-nieces and nephews; Jeanie Hruby, a longtime dear friend; her ENABLE/PRIDE friends. Her closest favorite nephew/niece were Zach Heinert and wife Barbara. They were always there to take her on road trips, celebrations, and lend a helping hand.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Roy and Clara (Roehrich) Heinert; her brothers, Richard Heinert and Tony Heinert, both of Great Falls, MT.

Loretta will be remembered for her special talent of remembering everyone's names, their dates of birth, names of their dogs and kids. If family forgot someone's anniversary date or birthday, we'd ask Loretta! She also had a special way of making everyone laugh by her unintended mispronounced words. Her favorite color was lavender, which she'd proudly tell us, "I look good in Labrador!"