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Nelson, Orla A. (1922-2011)

NELSON, HOLSTAD, ROSLIEN, KRONEMAN, ALBERTUS, RODEMEYER, REETZ, PICKEN

Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 5/27/2013 at 18:51:54

Orla A. Nelson
February 15, 1922 - May 27, 2011

FOREST CITY - Orla A. Nelson, age 89, of Forest City, died on Friday, May 27, 2011, at the Good Samaritan Care Center in Forest City.

The daughter of Albert B. and Amanda (Roslien) Holstad, Orla was born on February 15, 1922, on a farm in Bristol Township, Worth County. Baptized and confirmed at Elk Creek Church, rural Kensett, she attended rural schools before graduating from Joice High School in 1942. Chosen by the school students, she represented the school and community as their queen at the North Iowa Band Festival in Mason City on June 16, 1942.

After graduation, Orla worked at the Joice Post Office for one year. She, then, worked for the U.S. Office of Price Administration in Mason City until the end of rationing. Next, she worked for a year at the Fisher Typewriter Company.

On September 3, 1948, Orla married Gordon P. Nelson at Elk Creek Church. They made their first home in Denver, Colorado, where Gordon attended the University and Orla worked for Jeppeson and Co., a company that published a flight operations manual for airline pilots. Then, while Gordon attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota, Orla worked for an automobile dealer. Next, Gordon was recalled to active duty in the Air Force and stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio. Their children, Steven and Gregory, were born during the years they lived in Ohio. Subsequent tours of duty took them to Los Angeles and Edwards Air Force Base in California. Gordon retired from the Air Force in 1969, and the family moved to their farm near Joice, which they had already purchased.

Orla helped raise their two children and maintain the household while the family farmed from 1973 to 1979. She enjoyed cooking, baking, and sewing, and she helped remodel the farm house. During the summer of 1972, she and her family, accompanied by her sister and brother-in-law, Berniece and Edward, vacationed in Western Europe where they visited some of their ancestral family homesteads in Norway. In 1998, she and Gordon moved into a new home they had built. Orla continued to live there until she passed away. In the meantime, she and Gordon, ever enjoying retirement, took many trips in their motor home to visit their children and friends in various parts of the county.

Orla is survived by her husband, Gordon; her sons, Steven Nelson, of Joice, Iowa, and Greg Nelson, of Golden, Colorado; four grandchildren: Derek, Daniel, Eric (Amie), and Jennifer Nelson; a great-granddaughter, Scotlyn Nelson; a sister, Lorette Kroneman, of Mason City, Iowa; two brothers, Arnold Holstad, of Mason City, Iowa, and Harlan (Virginia) Holstad, of Hampton, Iowa; a brother-in-law, Alvin (Karen) Albertus; and a sister-in-law, Eldora Holstad.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Berniece (Edward) Rodemeyer, Alva (Fredrick) Reetz, Marcella (Donald) Picken, and Loraine Albertus; a brother, Sophus Holstad; a daughter-in-law, Rachel Nelson; a brother-in-law, Merle Kroneman; and two sisters-in-law, Viola and Amy Holstad.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM on Thursday, June 2, 2011, at Winnebago Lutheran Church in rural Lake Mills with Pastor Bill Peters officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Visitation will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 PM on Wednesday, June 1, 2011, at the Petersen Lund Funeral Home, 505 N Clark Street, Forest City, and will continue an hour prior to services at the church.

Copyright © 2011, Petersen Lund Funeral Home

Petersen Lund Funeral Home
 

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