Bernice (Hitt) Olsen Berg 1913 - 2008

HITT, OLSEN, BERG, GARLOCK

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/30/2019 at 17:05:00

Sioux City Journal
12 November 2008

SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- Bernice (Hitt) Olsen Berg, 95, of Omaha, formerly of South Sioux City, died Monday, Nov. 10, 2008, at Immanuel Hospital in Omaha.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at First Lutheran Church in South Sioux City. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 2 to 8 p.m. Friday, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m., at Becker-Hunt Funeral Home in South Sioux City.

Bernice was born Jan. 30, 1913, in Sioux City, the daughter of Clarence and Nellie (Garlock) Hitt of South Sioux City. Older siblings were Kenneth and Luella and younger brother, Delbert, all of whom are deceased. She grew up at 219 West 27th Street in South Sioux City in a home built by her carpenter father. She had many fond memories of her younger years, taking walks with neighborhood friends to the old roundhouse, pulling a wagon with a child in tow and picking wild flowers along the way. Her best friend, Alvera Salquist, who lived across the street, and they had many good times together. She took piano lessons and would often take a trip to Sioux City to buy sheet music for the piano and the ukulele, which she also learned to play. Attending South Sioux City High School, she graduated in 1932.

She worked as a young woman at Martin's Tea Room in Sioux City. Since times were hard and money scarce, she and her sister, Luella, would window shop the dress stores in Sioux City, then come home and fashion their own patterns on newspaper, cut them out and proceed to sew their new dresses. When war times came along, she took a job at the Wincharger Plant in Sioux City. For entertainment, she often went to dances in Sioux City, where there was no loss of young handsome soldiers to dance with.

It was at such a dance that she met Arthur Olsen and they married in 1946 in South Sioux City, where they took up residence. She was all too happy to stay at home with her children and always kept her three children well fed and groomed. She often sewed clothing for them as well. The Olsen family were members of First Lutheran Church and she was also a member of Order of the Eastern Star. After her children grew up and moved away, she became an active member of the Senior Centers in South Sioux City and Sioux City.

In 1987, she married Maurice Berg and they spent many happy years together, making the Senior Center a big part of their lives. They also enjoyed bowling at Harmony Lanes with their bowling leagues. They both enjoyed visits to Omaha to see their children and grandchildren. She was always a big Cornhusker football fan and, in fact, was getting ready to enjoy last Saturday's game with Kansas when she was stricken.

She is survived by her sons and their wives, Ronald and Roxi and Dennis and Sandy, all of Omaha; a daughter and her husband, Sharon and Bruce Clawson of Omaha; grandchildren, Zachary, Nicholas and Jessica Clawson and Laura and Rachel Olsen; a sister-in-law, Harriet Hitt; nieces and nephews, Evelyn Walding, Judy Samson, Linda John, Douglas and Judy Hitt, Mike Martin, Sheryl Allen, Linda Schaeffer and Don and Neil Pilgrim; and special friend, Richard Knapp of Akron, Iowa.

She was preceded in death by her husbands, Art Olsen and Maurice Berg; her parents, Clarence and Nellie Hitt; and siblings, Kenneth Hitt and his wife, Nellie, Luella and her husband, Oscar Back and Delbert Hitt.

Pallbearers will be her grandchildren.

Memorials in her name may be directed to the Sioux City or South Sioux City Senior Center.