Ulring, Aleta (South) 1926-2005

ULRING, SOUTH, YNTEMA, BOONE, CHRISTIANSON, LARSON, TROY

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 8/8/2012 at 12:25:54

Aleta S. Ulring, age 79, of Decorah, Iowa, died Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at her home of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma of the Central Nervous System.

Funeral Services will be held at 10:30 A.M. Saturday, November 19, 2005 at First Lutheran Church in Decorah by Rev. Steven M. Jacobsen and Rev. Marion Pruitt Miller. Burial will be in Phelps Cemetery in Decorah.

Visitation is from 4:00-8:00 P.M. Friday, November 18, 2005 at the Fjelstul Funeral Home in Decorah where a prayer service and remembrance will be held at 7:30 P.M. Friday. Friends may also call for an hour prior to the services on Saturday at the church.

Aleta South Ulring was born March 9, 1926 in Jamestown, Michigan, the only child of Harold and Clara Mae (Yntema) South and the only grand-child of Henry Yntema and Clara Boone.

Aleta grew up in the northern Minnesota in the town of Goodridge. Her father, Harold farmed wheat, oats, and flax, raised animals, planted trees with the Rural Conservation Corps, and worked as a carpenter, building houses and raising barns. Aleta would sing as she worked which her father Harold enjoyed, calling her his 'song bird", except when she sang a slow song because then he thought she "worked too slow".

Aleta was baptized in 1926 and confirmed in 1939 at the First Lutheran Church of Goodridge. Aleta graduated from Goodridge High School in 1944. From there she went to Washington D.C. to work as a secretary for the war effort.

In the fall of 1946 she entered Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN. There she met Joseph Ulring of Rothsay, MN who also had entered Augsburg after service during the war as a naval pilot. She said she first noticed Joseph because he would sing as he walked through campus, though when Joseph first noticed Aleta he winked at her which Aleta thought was pretty forward for a Christian college. Nevertheless Joseph succeeded in getting her attention. Pretty soon they were meeting on Friday nights for a 'burger and a malt" and a movie.

On August 25 of 1946, Joseph and Aleta were married in Goodridge. In 1949 they moved to Decorah, Iowa. They had five children, Janet, April, Beth, James and Scott. Aleta sang and directed choirs at Decorah Lutheran Church, and loved to teach piano.

Aleta loved music, Schubert Club, gardening, canoeing, was a leader in SEARCH Bible Study, a frequent soloist and had a strong and lifelong faith. She never missed church and seldom did anyone who visited her. Joe and Aleta loved to dance and were always a threat to spontaneously start dancing anywhere there was music and a dance floor.

The family left Decorah for LaCrosse, Wisconsin in 1972 and then moved to Sioux City, Iowa in 1976. Aleta and Joseph retired back in Decorah in 1999. She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband Joseph on April 18, 2001.

Aleta is survived by her five children, Janet Christianson (Jon) of Arden Hills, MN, Bishop April Ulring Larson (Judd) of LaCrosse WI, Beth Ulring (Chad Troy) of Stoughton WI, James Ulring (Nancy) of Decorah IA, and Scott Ulring (Ann) of Golden Valley, MN. Aleta was the proud grandmother of thirteen grand-children (Erin, Katie, Amy, James, Kirsten, Brian, Anne, Benjamin, Ned, Jane, Liv, Adam, Caleb) and 2 great grand-children (Bergen Aleta and Paul).

Memorials may be given to E.L.C.A. World Hunger, Lutheran World Relief, or the First Lutheran Church Music Fund in Decorah, IA.

A special Thank You to all who prayed for and accompanied Mom in countless ways, we thank you!

Jesus asked his disciples to keep awake and pray with him only one night and they could not. You have kept vigil with Mom two plus years. Who could imagine such a thing!

We list now only a few to honor how deeply we are one in Christ. This crosses denominational divisions, all borders and oceans, languages and cultures. We are indeed one body in Christ and one in prayer.

To all those in Decorah and the First Lutheran Congregation, her beloved pastors Pr. Steven Jacobsen and Pr. Marion Miller, Mary Circle, Chancel Choir and friends who formed the first circle of un-tiring vigilance in prayer, thank you! To many sister congregations who held Mom up weekly by name, Judson Memorial American Baptist of Minneapolis, Resurrection Lutheran of St. Paul, Good Shepherd Lutheran of Decorah, Luther College Congregation, the congregations of the LaCrosse Area Synod, the ELCA, the ELCA Conference of Bishops and spouses, the ELCA churchwide staff, the Ethiopian Evangelical Lutheran Church Mekane Yesus Central Synod, the Franciscan sisters, Assisi Heights of Rochester, Minnesota, the Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, the Lutheran Church in Nicaragua, the Lutheran Church in Peru and a countless host of others. Thanks to all who provided direct healing care to Mom, Dr. Sand, Dr. Habermann, Hospice, Loving Touch, and the doctors and nurses of Mayo.

Sometimes when the saints storm the gates of heaven, prayers are answered in the way we request and sometimes not. Mom never understood why her life was extended by Jesus Christ. All of you certainly were at the center of this blessing. May God continue to bless and keep you all in your ministries.

Source: Fjelstul Funeral Home database

Phelps Cemetery
 

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