Oscar LAAVEG

LAAVEG, HENIE, LARSON, MCCAFFREY

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/26/2007 at 11:43:51

Mason City Globe Gazette
6 May 1999

Rev. Oscar Laaveg, 83, of Belmond, Iowa, died Tuesday (May 4, 1999) at the Muse Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit, Mason City. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church, Belmond, with the Rev. Jim Carpenter officiating. Interment will be in the Belmond Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. today at the Tenold Funeral Home in Belmond, and will continue one hour prior to service time at the church on Friday. Memorials may be made to Hospice of North Iowa or to Trinity Lutheran Church-Emmaus House, in Belmond.

Rev. Oscar Laaveg, the son of Martin and Anna (Henie) Laaveg, was born on Dec. 4, 1915, in Vernon Township, N.D. He attended and graduated from the Park River, N.D. schools. Oscar played football for one year at North Dakota State University. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1940, at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn. He married Viola M. Larson on Sept. 11, 1943. In 1944, after receiving his Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., they began their ministry together. Prior to his ordination on June 25, 1944, Oscar served a year of seminary internship in Sandpoint, Idaho. He served a three-point parish in Kindred, N.D., from 1944 until 1948. In 1948, the Laavegs received a call to the Augustana Academy in Canton, S.D., and to serve the Beaver Creek Lutheran Church. In 1949, they moved to Rapid City, S.D., to begin a home mission congregation until 1953. Helmar Lutheran Church of rural Newark, Ill., was served from 1953 until 1957. In 1957, Oscar accepted a call to a two-point parish in Camrose, Alberta, Canada, until 1960. The Laavegs moved to Belmond, to serve Trinity and St. Olaf Lutheran Churches, from 1960 to 1970. St. John Lutheran Church of rural Cylinder, extended a call to him in 1970. They served this country parish until 1978, when they moved to Fertile. In Fertile, they served a two-point parish of Fertile Lutheran and Pilot Knob Lutheran Churches. The couple officially retired in 1982.

Oscar is survived by his wife, Viola, of Belmond; sons, Dr. Sterling Laaveg and his wife, Rita, of Mason City, Paul Laaveg of Leesburg, Va., Joel Laaveg and his wife, Gina, of Clear Lake, and Pastor Lee Laaveg and his wife, Denise, of Forest City; 10 grandchildren, Aaron, Nicole and Lisa Laaveg, Jacob Laaveg, Philip and Daniel Laaveg, and Jessica, Andrea, Heather and Luke Laaveg; brother, Joe Laaveg and his wife, Helen, of Park River, N.D.; sister-in-law, Josephine Laaveg of Park River, N.D.; and brother-in-law, Dr. Jack McCaffrey of Minneapolis, Minn. He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Willie Laaveg; and a sister, Linnea McCaffrey.