Swenson, Thelma (Halvorson) -- 1911 - 1999

ANDERSON, HALVORSON, SWENSON, VICKERMAN, FRETHEIM, VAALA

Posted By: IA GenWeb Volunteer
Date: 6/16/2010 at 08:07:10

Decorah Journal, Thursday, October 7, 1999

Thelma Swenson

Thelma E. Swenson, 88, of Mabel, Minn., died Saturday, Oct. 2, 1999, at her home.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, Oct. 7, at 10 a.m. at the First Lutheran Church in Mabel with the Rev. Lloyd Menke officiating.

Burial will be at the Mabel Lutheran Cemetery. The Mengis Funeral Home of Mabel is handling arrangements.

Visitation will he held one hour before services at the church.

Thelma (Halvorson) Swenson was born April 21, 1911, in Ridgeway, the daughter of Henry and Mathilda (Anderson) Halvorson. In 1928 she graduated from Cresco High School and then attended the Cedar Falls Teachers College. She taught in the Grindeland Country School south of Spring Grove, Minn. for three years. On Aug. 11, 1931, she married John Swenson. They farmed in the rural Spring Grove area until 1936, when they moved to the Ridgeway area before buying a farm north of Mabel in 1945. In 1957 they built a house across the road and had resided there.

Thelma was a member of the Mabel First Lutheran Church and was formerly active in 4 H, Sunday School, Garden Club and the County Nursing Service Board.

Survivors include three sons, Jerald Swenson of Santa Monica, Calif., Stanley and Lois Swenson of Mabel, Minn., and Orville and Sandy Swenson of Cloquet, Minn.; one daughter, Marilyn and Dick Vickerman of Eagan, Minn.; nine grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; two daughters, Alice Fretheim of Decorah and Valborg Vaala of Cresco; and several nieces and nephews.

Thelma Swenson was preceded in death by her husband, John on Nov. 7, 1975; a grandson, Christopher, and a sister, Helen Kjos.

Transcribed by an IA GenWeb Volunteer from obituaries found in the Howard-Winneshiek Genealogy Society Library, Cresco, Iowa.