Haraldson, Janet (1928-2019)

HARALDSON, DUNNING, AVERY, MOSBO, HENNING

Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 5/18/2021 at 17:36:22

Janet Haraldson
February 26, 1928 - April 5, 2019

Janet Haraldson, age 91, of Rembrandt, Iowa, died on Friday, April 5, 2019, in Spencer, Iowa.

The third child of Joy and Margaret (Avery) Dunning, Janet Haraldson was born on February 26, 1928, in Austin, Minnesota, after following her brothers Robert and Alden into this world. She was baptized in the First Congregational Church in Spencer, Iowa, on November 3, 1929. “Mother Margaret” died way too young in February of 1931, and in December of 1932, Janet gained two more brothers, Vic and Connie, when Joy married Maurine Christenson, who had, also, been widowed, and a tight family unit was created.

Janet worked for Joe and Marge Carroll in the early years of Carroll’s Bakery in Spencer while going to school, graduating with the Spencer High School Class of 1946. In September of 1947, her parents bought the café in Rembrandt, Iowa. One day when there was a big crowd expected for a farm auction, they called Janet to come down to help, and she, basically, never left. She continued to help at Dunning’s Cafe, met a local boy, Ronald Haraldson, and she and “Ronnie” married on August 23, 1950, in Jackson, Minnesota. To their union, four children were born: Vaughan, Valerie, James, and David.

The new couple, soon, moved to San Antonio, Texas, where Ron spent four years in the service as a hospital clerk at Lackland Air Force Base during the Korean Conflict. After his Honorable Discharge in December 1954, they moved back to Rembrandt where Ron joined his father working in the First National Bank of Rembrandt. In addition to raising her kids, Janet jumped into community activities with both feet. She had roles in community theater plays, supported school events, and joined the Merry Matrons. In addition, she played a very active in Our Saviors Lutheran Church. Confirmed with the adult class of 1957, she organized Christmas programs, vacation Bible School, and Mother-Daughter Banquets, participated in WELCA, and helped host the community Halloween party in the church basement. A fixture in the church kitchen for many, many years, Janet, always helped every time food was served for any occasion.

Serving on the founding board of the Rembrandt Housing Project, Janet oversaw that facility’s upkeep for many years. Instrumental in preserving copies of The Rembrandt Booster, she helped with Rembrandt alumni reunion activities and made sure that Rembrandt was well-represented in the displays at the Buena Vista County Historical Society in Storm Lake.

With her nest at home almost empty, Janet joined her husband at the bank, working beside him for nearly four decades until she retired in 2010. After the new Little League ballpark at the east edge of Rembrandt, Engebretson Field, was dedicated in 1988, she managed the concession stand, turning it into a destination eatery with her fabled baked potatoes and nine possible toppings, for which she earned the title “The Baked Potato Queen.”

Proud that she had no middle name -- like the five women in her lineage before her -- she passed this tradition on to her daughter and granddaughter. A lifelong patriot, she could trace her Avery family roots back to New England before the Revolutionary War. She revered her older brother, Robert, who joined the Army in 1943 after graduating from Spencer High School. “Bob,” officially, entered World War II when he walked ashore at Utah Beach shortly after D-Day, never to return. Devastated by the news, his family back home learned that on July 3, 1944, he had been killed in action. Janet honored his memory by not only observing proper flag etiquette, but also by making sure that other people did too. Indeed, she hated seeing a tattered flag flying, and she, frequently, gave people new flags to replace their old, worn out ones. In addition, every Memorial Day weekend, Janet and Ronnie loaded their van with crosses, drove to the Little Sioux Valley Cemetery west of Rembrandt, and decorated the graves of every veteran buried there. Fittingly, in 2005, Janet found closure when she was able to visit Bob’s grave at the American Cemetery in Normandy.

A bubbling fountain of energy and good humor, Janet lived her life with a smile and a contagious laugh. Moreover, she, literally, could not sit still. She, always, had a project in progress with yet more waiting for her to start, usually helping someone else.

Janet was preceded in death by Ron, her husband of sixty-eight years; her mother, father, and stepmother; and her four brothers. She is survived by her sons: Vaughan, Jim (Jerri), and David, of Rembrandt; her daughter, Valerie (Rolf) Mosbo, of Spencer; her grandchildren, Stefanie Mosbo Henning (Nate Conlon), of Spencer, Justin (Jane) Mosbo, of Charlotte, North Carolina, Michael Haraldson, of Spencer, and Jennifer Haraldson, of Minneapolis, Minnesota; and her great-grandsons, Jackson and Jordan Mosbo.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, April 9, 2019, at 10:30 a.m. at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Rembrandt. Burial will follow in the Little Sioux Valley Cemetery. Visitation is scheduled for Monday, April 8, 2019, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Rembrandt Youth Ball Park. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is overseeing the arrangements.

Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Homes, Storm Lake, Iowa, 2019.

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