LOMEN, Selma

LOMEN, MORTENSON, HERRIGSTAD, ROVANG, OLSON

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 6/10/2013 at 00:33:21

Mrs. C.O. (Selma) Lomen, 103, died Friday, Sept. 25, 1998, of congestive heart
failure at the Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake, Iowa. Funeral services will
be held today (Wednesday), Sept. 30, at 10 a.m. at Zion Lutheran Church in
Clear Lake, where Selma was a member since moving to Clear Lake in 1926. The
Rev. Dean Hess will officiate. Burial will be in the Clear Lake Cemetery.

The family suggests memorials to Zion Lutheran Church or Opportunity Village,
Clear Lake.

Selma was born Aug. 17, 1895l, the daughter of Ingvald and Hilda (Mortenson)
Herrigstad, Norwegian immigrants, at Melvin, Polk County, Minn. She was
married to Carl Oscar Lomen in Bode, Iowa on June 14, 1916. She had three
children, Gladys (Mrs. Marvin Rovang), Helen (Mrs. Soren Olson), and Donald.

Selma had been active in her church, having been president of the Ladies Aid
(now WELCA), church circle organizer and officer, Sunday School teacher, one
of the first deaconesses, and a quilter for many years.

In the early 1930s, Selma helped to organize the Music Mothers Club and was
its second president. She sewed band and glee club uniforms for the high
school music groups and the formals for the singers of the Hamilton Business
School chorus. During World War II she was a local Red Cross volunteer.

She had been active in the former Civic League, Federated Women’s Club, WCTU,
Christian Women, Executives Club, Travelers Club, Community Concerts of Mason
City and Clear Lake and Clear Lake Senior Citizens. Selma was a member of the
Library Reading Club and the Liberty Church Circle.

Selma enjoyed traveling and attended several national and regional church
conventions. She also went on many chartered bus trips throughout North
America. One time, she went with the Zion Youth to Holden Village in Washington
State on a school bus, sleeping in church basements on the way. At the age of 75
she went with her daughter, Gladys, on a Waldorf alumni/friends tour to Europe.
Walking was one of her many joys, including at least three hikes around Clear Lake,
even in her 80s.

Until November 1989, Selma lived in her own home at 113 N. 4th St., Clear
Lake. At that time she moved to the Oakwood Care Center in Clear Lake. There,
she loved to visit with people and often sang her favorite Gospel hymns going
down the hallways. Corresponding with her many family members and friends,
having daily devotions and prayers, reminiscing, reading romance novels and
Scandinavian and Christian literature occupied much of her time, besides
participating in activities at the center. On occasion she had seen visions of
heaven and angels.

She is survived by her daughter, Helen and her husband, Soren Olson, of
Horseshoe Bend, Ark.; her son, Donald and his wife, Patricia of Des Moines and
Bayside, Clear Lake; nine grandchildren, Julie (Rovang) and her husband the
Rev. Donald Burton of Racine, Wis., David Rovang and his wife, Karen, of
Forest Lake, Minn., Phillip Rovang, and his wife, Laura, of Westminster, M.D.,
Linda (Mari Rovang) and her husband Howard Mathison of Warwick, Mass., Audrey
(Olson) and her husband, Jack Knight, of Boone, Iowa, Susan (Olson) and her
husband, David Knippel of Ames, Iowa, Kari (Lomen) and her husband, Rod
Carlson, of rural Klemme, Iowa, the Rev. Steven Lomen and his wife, Karen
Webb, of Minneapolis, Minn., and David Lomen of Des Moines; 25
great-grandchildren; 20 great-great-grandchildren; sister-in-law, Mrs.Willis
(Cora) Herrigstad of Oak Harbor, Wash.; several nieces and nephews; and
countless friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; four brothers; four sisters; her
husband, Oscar Lomen in April 1960, who had been the auditor for Woodford
Wheeler Lumber Company; and a daughter, Gladys (Mrs. Marvin Rovang) who died
June, 1974.