Samuelson, Paul Freeman (1919-2017)

SAMUELSON, HANSON, VOLKERT, CARLSON, VOHS, YOUNG, HAHN, SHILL, SAKAI

Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 7/4/2017 at 18:30:50

Paul Freeman Samuelson
(December 15, 1919 - May 5, 2017)

Paul Freeman Samuelson, 97, passed away peacefully Friday evening, May 5, 2017, at the Sunset Knoll Care and Rehab Center in Aurelia following a fall in his home at Welcov Assisted Living in Alta, Iowa.

Paul was born on a farm near Cleghorn in Rock Township, Cherokee County, Iowa, on December 15, 1919, to Berger and Hertha (Hanson) Samuelson. While growing up on the farm, he attended rural one-room schools. Then, in 1937, he graduated from Quimby High School where he had played basketball and saxophone in the band. For the next three years, he worked on the farm with his father and as a hired man on neighboring farms.

In 1938, Paul met Wanda Mae Volkert at a dance in Cherokee. They married on April 10, 1940, in Holstein, Iowa. From 1940 to 1943, Paul worked at Simonsen’s Bean Mill. During World War II, however, he joined his father-in-law, Ed Volkert, in farming south of Quimby. Then, he continued farming on his own for another forty years, raising row crops and livestock until he retired in 1981.

After retiring, “Red,” as he was known to family and friends, and Wanda moved to a home on Potato Lake, outside Park Rapids, Minnesota. They lived there and in St. Cloud, Minnesota, until the mid-1990s when they moved back to Newell and then later to Aurelia, Iowa. Through the years, they were blessed with three sons and a daughter: Roger, Gary, Ronald, and Shari. On April 10, 2017, Paul and Wanda celebrated their seventy-seventh wedding anniversary.

During his long life, Paul enjoyed fishing, hunting, playing cards, golfing, using his welder to craft useful items for the home, assembling wind chimes, building birdhouses, and reading, especially Western novels. He, even, had a backyard garden until just the last few years. He loved dancing with Wanda, enjoying country and old-time music, and traveling to visit his children and grandchildren. Uncle Red was “a card” because he could always tell a good joke, make babies smile, and occasionally sing a bawdy song.

Paul was preceded in death by his brother, Virgil (Lucille) Samuelson; his sister, Virgine (Harry) Carlson; three sons, Roger, Gary, and Ronald; five brothers-in-law: Wilbert Vohs, James Young, Lorne Hahn, and Paul and Alvin (Erma) Volkert. He is survived by his wife, Wanda; his daughter, Shari (John) Wesely, of Phoenix, Arizona; his daughter-in-law, Gay Samuelson, of Scottsdale, Arizona; his grandchildren: Holly (Chris) Shill, and Vanessa (Scott) Sakai, all of Scottsdale, Arizona; James (Marcia) Samuelson, of Newburyport, Massachusetts; and David Samuelson, of Dilworth, Minnesota; his great-grandchildren: Aaron and Sachi Sakai, Nicole and Andrea Samuelson, and Reagan Shill; and his sisters-in-law: Frieda Vohs, of Holstein, Iowa, Carolyn Young, of Galva, Iowa, Janet Hahn, of Aurelia, Iowa, and Barbara Volkert, of Cherokee, Iowa; as well as by many nieces and nephews.

Memorial services will be held on Friday, May 12, 2007, at 11:00 a.m. at the Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee, Iowa, Pastor Norman Prather officiating. Visitation with the family present will be on Friday from 10:00 a.m. until the service time at the funeral home. Burial will be at Buena Vista Memorial Park Cemetery in Storm Lake, Iowa. The family requests that memorials be directed to Unity Point Hospice in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Boothby Funeral Home, Cherokee, Iowa, 2017.

Buena Vista Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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