Deatherage, Barbara Jean 1936-2017

DEATHERAGE, EKREN, WADUM

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 2/21/2017 at 16:41:26

Barbara Jean Deatherage
January 18, 1936 - July 14, 2017

Barbara Jean Ekren Deatherage, 81, passed away on July 14, 2017. She went to the Lord peacefully, in her sleep, and surrounded by loving family.

Barbara was born on January 18, 1936 to Peter Ekren and Helen Waldum Ekren and was the older sister to her brother Robert and her sister Betty. She and her siblings grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Sioux City, Iowa. After her father passed away when she was about 12, Barbara, along with Robert and Betty, were “raised by a village” of the Waldum sisters, including their mother Helen and their aunts Inga, Bertha (who Barbara called Bopee), Edna, and Josephine. Barbara also would speak of spending time with her grandmother, whose family came to the USA from Trondheim, Norway and who only spoke Norwegian.

Barbara majored in home economics at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, where she fell in love with Robert (“Bob”) Deatherage. Barb and Bob were married on December 30, 1955 at Morningside Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa, and last year celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. They devoted their lives to raising their four children in Newton, Iowa, where Bob worked as a design engineer for the Maytag Company – Mark (married to Julie, in Scottsdale, Arizona), Craig (married to Jeanette, in Lynn Haven, Florida), Rick (married to Wendy, in Cook, Minnesota), and Mindy (married to Guy, in Peoria, Arizona). Barbara was a loving and wonderful grandmother to seven grandchildren – Kaitlyn, Tauren, Matt, Sarah, Melody, Brandon, and Molly Margaret, as well as to her four great-grandchildren – Kaya Rose, Lucy, River, and Isla. “Aunt Barb” also was blessed with and loved her nieces and nephews – David, Christie, Stephen, Bobby, Jeff, Dorothy, and Judy, and she was a de facto second grandmother to some of her grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

Barbara worked as an old-fashioned telephone switchboard operator before she was married. She then spent the next 27 years as a hard-working and loving wife and mother. Her children remember that she prepared a hearty dinner every night for “family time,” that she took them to all manner of school events, sports leagues, and extra-curricular activities, that she made their home a central hub of activity for them and their friends, that she helped them with homework and “encouraged” them to work hard and do their best, that she made great, creative birthday cakes, that she loved to play 500 and Tripoley, and that on a limited budget she managed to always provide them with everything they needed. Barb served as President of the Newton High School Band Parents’ Association, helped organize Little Leagues, and was very active in Mindy’s Blue Birds and Campfire Girls chapters.

Barb’s faith was very important to her. She and Bob helped found and build Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Newton. Barb served as bookkeeper for the church for many years. Her favorite social time was Sunday brunch after church with the Vermillions, Fishers, Nidas, Coopers, and Stevens.

Everyone remembers Barbara best for the Christmas holidays. That was a time when her combined love of God and Jesus, her family, and her Norwegian heritage all came together. She made the house come alive with Christmas decorations and spirit, showed her kids how to make Norwegian holiday cookies and lefse, found ways to make sure everyone received presents they would enjoy, taught her kids the importance of giving and of gratitude, and brought all of the family’s generations together.

After Bob’s retirement, he and Barb enjoyed many years in Minneapolis, where they loved spending time at the lakes and became known to friends and locals as the “Mayors of Lake Harriet.” They then spent their last years together in Orr, Minnesota, with a one-year stay in Phoenix, Arizona.

Services will be held on Saturday, July 22, 2017 at Calvary Lutheran Church, 10770 Highway 23, Orr, MN. Visitation at 10:00; Service at 11:00; followed by Interment (at Leiding Cemetery); then return to Church for lunch and fellowship. Arrangements are with Mlaker Funeral Home in Cook. To sign the online guestbook, or to leave a condolence for the family, please go to: www.mlakerfuneralhome.com ~ The Mlaker Funeral Home, Cook, MN 14 July 2017.