BIRKEDAL, Ethel, M. (THOMPSON) GUNDERSON

THOMPSON, BIRKEDAL, HOVE, GUNDERSON, STAFFORD, JOHNSON, FIELD, LUTTIO

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 10/30/2016 at 05:38:16

Obituary ~ Ethel M. (Thompson) Birkedal
January 21, 1911 ~ October 17, 1996

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
October 20, 1996

MASON CITY -- Ethel M. Birkedal, 85, of 211 S. Louisiana Ave., died Thursday (Oct. 17, 1996) at North Iowa Mercy Health Center East.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. James Lutheran Church with the Rev. David Anderson officiating. Interment will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Riverview Cemetery, Elmore, Minn.

Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 N. Pennsylvania Ave., and one hour prior to services at the church on Monday. Lunch will be served at St. James and then proceed to Elmore, Minn.

The family suggests memorials to the Ethel M. Birkedal Memorial Fund.

Ethel M. Birkedal was born Jan. 21, 1911, in Story City, the daughter of Martin and Esther (Hove) Thompson. She attended country school in the Armstrong area. Ethel was married to Berger Gunderson who was killed in a work related accident while living in Washington. Ethel later married Peter G. Birkedal on Aug. 27, 1949, at Blue Earth, Minn. She resided in several small communities in the North Iowa and Southern Minnesota area before moving to Mason City in 1949. Ethel worked in housekeeping for 10 years at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital, retiring in 1973. She attended St. James Lutheran Church.

Survivors include one son, Kenneth Gunderson of Plymouth; one daughter, Marlene Stafford and her husband, David, of Yuma, Ariz.; eight grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; brother, Herman Thompson and his wife, Lucille of Blue Earth, Minn., sister, Lillian Johnson and her husband, Odin, of Rake, and brother, Donald Thompson and his wife, Wilma, of Kerrville, Texas; step-daughter, Marie Field and her husband, John, of Osage, step-son, Palmer Birkedal of Osage, and step-daughter, Margaret Luttio and her husband, Phil, of San Pedro, Calif.

She was preceded in death by her parents; first and second husbands; one sister, Alice Thompson; and one grandchild in infancy.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2016