CARLSON, Bessie E.

CARLSON, NISSEN, KARSTENS, EBY, EGGER, REUSCH, QUAN, SUMP, ANDERSON, ZWIEFEL, STRAUB

Posted By: Lynette Edsall (email)
Date: 11/5/2006 at 18:07:21

Bessie E. Carlson, 81, of Cherokee passed away Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006, at Cherokee Regional Medical Center following a brief illness.

Services will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Oakdale Evangelical Free Church in rural Meriden, Iowa, with the Revs. Clint Hogrefe and Merle Wester officiating. Burial will be in Liberty Cemetery. There will be a family prayer service at 1:45 p.m. Saturday at the church. Visitation will be 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, with the family present 5 to 7 p.m., at Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee.

Bessie was born Jan. 19, 1925, in Paullina, Iowa, to John and Elisabeth (Nissen) Karstens. She graduated from Calumet (Iowa) High School and attended Morningside College. She had worked as a secretary for the Farmer's Co-op Elevator in Paullina for a few years.

She was married to Carl Melburn Carlson on Aug. 12, 1946, in Paullina. The couple farmed near Cleghorn, Iowa, until 1968 and also near Paullina. They retired in 1997 and moved to Cherokee.

She is survived by three daughters and their husbands, Karen and William Eby of Panora, Iowa, Betty and James Egger of Cherokee and Ruth and Randy Reusch of Quimby, Iowa; seven grandchildren and spouses, Janell Eby of Ames, Iowa, Denise and Tuan Quan of Fountain Hills, Ariz., Jamie and Dana Sump of Grimes, Iowa, Lori and Dave Anderson of Allen, Texas, Stacey and Darren Zwiefel of Cherokee, Kelly and Trish Reusch of Washta, Iowa, and Chad Reusch of Quimby, Iowa; 14 great-grandchildren; and a sister and her husband, Alice and Kenneth Straub of Paullina.

She was preceded in death by her parents; and her husband on June 7, 2005.

The family requests that memorials be made to the Hidden Acres Christian Center in Dayton, Iowa.