Rosendahl, Norma Jean (Gilbertson) 1931 - 2020

ROSENDAHL, GILBERTSON, BAKKEN, BROWN, FOX

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 8/21/2020 at 14:20:56

Private graveside services for Norma Jean Rosendahl, 89, from Osage, are Saturday, Aug. 15, at 11 a.m., at the Osage cemetery, officiated by Pastor Cindy Krause from Our Saviors Lutheran Church. Norma died Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, at the Mitchell County Regional Hospital, after a brief illness.

Norma was born June 12, 1931, the daughter of Alfred and Isabel (Bakken) Gilbertson. She was second to the youngest of eight children. She was baptized in 1931 and confirmed in May 1945 at First Lutheran Church in Decorah. She graduated from Decorah High School in 1949.

Norma was united in marriage to Curtis W. Rosendahl Oct. 15, 1950, at Madison Lutheran Church in Decorah. They made their home in the Decorah area until 1967 when they moved to Osage. To this union were born four children: Barb, Diane, Jim and Lori.

While in Decorah, Norma worked at Springer’s Cafe and K & S Super Value until 1967 when they moved to Osage, where she worked as a school cook from 1968, retiring in 1996.

The kitchen on Poplar Street was the heart of Curt and Norma’s home. There was always a pot of coffee brewing and a continual parade of friends and family who would pull up a chair at the kitchen table and share their latest joys and sorrows, catch up on local news, argue politics, solve the world’s problems or enjoy a rousing game of UNO, 500, Cribbage, HuckleyBuck, Dominoes, or Marbles. At times the kitchen was even transformed into a dance floor.

Norma loved to sit at the kitchen table and watch the birds she fed daily or embroider flour sack kitchen towels. She was a meticulous record keeper and would spend hours balancing her checkbook to the penny and documenting daily events in her diary.

Norma, (known for her sweet tooth), was an excellent cook and there were always treats such as yellow cake with homemade chocolate fudge frosting, lemon meringue pie or fresh baked bread. During Christmas, there was cornflake candy as well as the Norwegian staples of lefse and klub.
She was very proud of the fact she served her kids and the local grandkids hot lunch at Osage schools for 28 years. For many of you from Osage reading this, if you graduated between 1973 and 2007, it is highly likely she served you hot lunch too!

She was a member of Our Saviors Lutheran Church.

In her younger years, she enjoyed bowling league, golf, chaperoning Drum and Bugle Corp trips, attending Hawkeye football games with Curt and running the early Sunday morning Des Moines Register paper route.
For the last 10 years of her life she received excellent care at Faith Home Assisted Living where she enjoyed the bingo competitions, ring a word, games of marbles with Hakkon, Sunday afternoon coffee with her girlfriends, and cherished visits with the kids, grandkids, great-grandbabies and the puppies. She could be found nearly every Sunday at Jim and Marcia’s for dinner.

Survivors include her children: Diane (Rob) Brown of Rochester, Minn.; Jim (Marcia) Rosendahl of Osage; Lori (Terry) Fox of Peyton, Colo.; grandchildren: Megan Rosendahl (Chicago); Lars (Bruna) Rosendahl (Orlando); Hakkon (Ashley) Rosendahl (Osage); Cody Fox (Colorado Springs); Willow Fox (Colorado Springs); great-grandchildren, Liv and Heath Rosendahl (Osage).

Those preceding her in death include her daughter, Barb; husband, Curt; parents; and seven brothers and sisters.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at jdrf.com or by mail at JDRF; PO Box 37920; Boone, Iowa 50037-0920 or by calling 1-800-533-CURE (2873).

Source: Decorah Newspapers 8/18/20