Amber Marie (Mitchell) (Petersen) PACKARD

PACKARD, JOHNSON, MITCHELL, PETERSEN, RANSOM, WEBB, SPRAGUE, KNUTSON, MATTES, PALS, JACOBSEN, JENISON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/7/2007 at 01:57:13

December 9, 2003

Amber Marie Packard, 84, of Belmond, died on Sunday, December 7, 2003, at the Belmond Medical Center. Funeral services were held on Wednesday, December 10, at 11:00 a.m., at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Belmond, with Pastor Rod Hopp officiating. Burial was in the Belmond Cemetery.

Amber Marie Mitchell (Petersen) Packard, was born on December 14, 1918, to Jesse and Evaline (Johnson) Mitchell at Boicourt, Kansas. At the age of five, Marie's father was accidentally killed in his duty as a volunteer fireman in Burlington, Kansas. Marie's maternal grandparents played a large roll in her upbringing until her mother married L. T. Petersen when Marie was 13. This union gave Marie two step siblings, Wilbur Petersen and Margaret "Chic" Ransom. Marie was baptized at the age of 13. She was active in band, glee club and drama and graduated from the Denison, Iowa High School in 1936.

Marie moved to Belmond after graduation to work for her aunt at Petersen's Café. She married R.G. "Bud" Packard in a double ceremony with Fred and Phyllis Pals in November of 1937. After her marriage, she joined the Trinity Lutheran Church and was a member of the Pearle Circle. She was a past member of the Culture Study Club, Belmond Golf Course and Clarmond Country Club. Marie enjoyed homemaking, decorating, trail riding on her horse, needlepoint, crocheting afghans, oil painting, piano, bridge, golf, fishing and when inspired, writing poetry. Marie was honored to have two showings of her paintings at the Jenison Mecham Memorial Art Center. One of her poems was published in The International Library of Poetry and is in the Talbot Belmond Public Library. Marie always said she had a wonderful life and enjoyed traveling to northern Minnesota to fish, to southern Minnesota on the Mississippi River at Winona and to Bull Shoals River near Branson, Missouri, where they built a home and wintered for 12 years.

She was preceded in death by her husband; an infant son; mother, father and step-father; half sister, Ruby Lois Webb; step-brother, Wilbur Petersen; and half-sister, Donna Sprague. Marie is survived by her daughters, Barbara A. Johnson and Julie E. Packard-Knutson of Fort Dodge; grandchildren, Erin Johnson of Chicago, Ned Johnson of Fort Dodge and Packard and James Knutson of Ankeny; half-sister, Mabel Mattes; half-brother, Chris Petersen; step-sister, Margaret Ransom; and sisters, Phyllis Pals, Norma Jeanne (Leland Jenison) and Leila (Arvild) Jacobson. Memorials may be made to the Trinity Lutheran Church.

©Belmond Independent 2003