Roy Leonard Lauritsen 1920-2003

LAURITSEN, PETERSEN, GLEASON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/8/2008 at 00:56:07

Sioux City Journal
Friday, November 21, 2003

MOORHEAD, Iowa -- Roy Leonard Lauritsen, 83, of Moorhead died Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003, at Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Iowa.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Moorhead, with the Rev. Carla Ingebretsen officiating. Burial will be in Ingeman Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m. and a prayer service at 7 p.m., at Rush Family Care Service in Onawa.

Roy was born July 22, 1920, on a farm west of Moorhead, the son of Jens Jacob and Mary Pauline (Petersen) Lauritsen. He married Marie Elizabeth Gleason on March 7, 1942, in South Sioux City. The couple had both graduated from Blencoe (Iowa) High School.
He chose farming as his career and worked for area farmers until 1951, when the family moved to the Elmer Eskelsen farm. He enjoyed growing corn and soybeans as well as running his cow/calf herd. The couple retired to Moorhead, but he still enjoyed some farm work and working in his garden. Marie passed away Dec. 27, 2001, in Onawa.

He was a longtime member of Bethesda Lutheran Church. He enjoyed daily coffee times with his friends.

Survivors include three daughters and their husbands, Carolyn Sue and James Sward of Galesburg, Ill., Mary Frances and Bill Mason of Pocahontas, Iowa, and Peggy Jo and Harvey Swenson of Onawa; two sons and their wives, the Rev. Dennis J. and Jane (Hinlicky) Lauritsen of Riverside, Ill., and Daryle M. and Deb Lauritsen of Moorhead; 12 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and a brother and his wife, Marvin K. and Norma Jean Lauritsen of Rhinelander, Wis.

In addition to his wife, he was also preceded in death by his parents.