ROHLFSEN, Laverne O. 1928-2002

ROHLFSEN

Posted By: K. L. Kittleson
Date: 8/1/2011 at 01:26:10

LAVERNE ORVILLE ROHLFSEN

GRAFTON, IOWA - Laverne Orville Rohlfsen, 74, of Grafton, died Friday (Dec. 13, 2002) at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa in Mason City.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Grafton with the Rev. Wayne Ellingson officiating. Burial will be in the Grafton Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. today at Schroeder & Sites Funeral Home, 207 South School Street, in St. Ansgar.

Laverne was born on Oct. 25, 1928, to Orville and Clara (Beermann) Rohlfsen in Cherokee, Iowa. He attended country school for his first three years of schooling, then Lutheran Parochial School, Germantown, Iowa. through the eighth grade. He attended high school in Paullina, graduating in 1947. He enrolled in Iowa State Teachers College, Cedar Falls, in 1947. He was drafted into the U.S. Marine Corps in 1951; he played football at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and made the base team. He was honorably discharged from the Marines in 1953. Laverne returned to college, at what is now the University of Northern Iowa, and graduated in 1954.

His first teaching job was in Rockwell City, where he coached and taught from 1954 to 1956.

He married Mary E. Purdie on May 29, 1955, in Rockwell City. They moved to Northwood where he was a teacher and coach from 1956 to 1960. He sold insurance for two years. They moved to Grafton in 1962 where he was a junior high school teacher and coach from 1962 to 1989. He retired in 1989. Laverne sold multi-peril crop insurance for 20 years. He enjoyed reading, going fishing, playing cards and farming with the Cole family.

Laverne is survived by his wife, Mary, of Grafton; three sons, Dar and his wife, Ann, of Ankeny, Bill and his wife, Renee, of Mason City, Todd and his wife, Netty, of Jessup; one daughter, Robin and her husband, Karl Johnson, of Auburn, Ala.; ten grandchildren, Chase Rohlfsen and his wife, Heidi and great-grandson, Keegan Rohlfsen, Brandon, Scott, Adam, Nick , Max, Kelly, Amy, Joe and Justin Rohlfsen; and one brother, Orlen Rohlfsen and his wife, Phyllis, of Newell; a brother-in-law, Melvin Kisher of Newell; sister-in-law, Miriam Rohlfsen of Des Moines and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; a sister, Elaine (Rohlfsen) Kisher; a brother, Dr. Don Rohlfsen.

Schroeder & Sites Funeral Home, (641) 713-4920.

Globe Gazette, Dec. 16, 2002