Lavina Josephine (Torkelson) ASKELAND

ASKELAND, TORKELSON, OLSON, RAUK, SKOGEN, CHRISTIANSON, SUNDE, JERMELAND, ALBERTSON, HANNA, KESSLER, EGESDAL

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/18/2009 at 15:20:23

Mason City Globe Gazette, Iowa
June 18, 2006

BUFFALO CENTER — Lavina Askeland, age 94, of Buffalo Center, died on Friday (June 16, 2006) at Timely Mission Nursing Home in Buffalo Center.
Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. on Monday at Bethany Lutheran Church in Thompson, Iowa, with Pastor Mark Decker officiating. Interment will be at Olena Mound Cemetery in Buffalo Center. Her visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. today at Winter Funeral Home in Buffalo Center.

Lavina Josephine Askeland was born at home near Hardy, Iowa, on April 12, 1912, to Osmund and Bessie (Olson) Torkelson. Lavina was baptized in the Lutheran faith and was confirmed in the Bethany Lutheran Church in Thompson, Iowa. She was a member of the Liberty Lutheran Church in Rake and was always ready to help in all ways. After an eighth-grade education, she worked as a hired girl and later as a cook in the Dolmage Hospital in Buffalo Center. Lavina was married to Ingvald Askeland on April 11, 1936, and has lived near Buffalo Center all her married life. She entered the Timely Mission Nursing Home in April 1993. She was always ready to give a helping hand to others but also found some time for her hobbies including knitting, crocheting, writing poems, rosemaling, her flower and vegetable garden, and baking. Many remember her for her strawberry patch and the great fresh doughnuts and coffee provided to all who picked. She was a loving mother and grandmother and was loved by many.

She is survived by her five children, Lila Rauk of Leland, Iowa, Koreen and his wife, Karen, of Buffalo Center, Iowa, Orvin and his wife, Pam, of Eden Prairie, Minn., Carolyn Skogen and her husband, Don, of Rake, Iowa, and Diane Christianson and her husband, Steve, of Fergus Falls, Minn.; 15 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; her sister, Thema Sunde, of Forest City, Iowa; her sister, Louise Jermeland, of Forest City, Iowa; her brother, Orrin Torkelson, and wife, Marian, of Forest City, Iowa; her sister, Julaine Albertson, and her husband, Charles, of Lake Mills, Iowa; and her sister, Darlene Hanna, and her husband, Marvin, of Forest City, Iowa; sister-in-law, Bonnie Torkelson, of Forest City, Iowa; sister-in-law, Linda Kessler, of Scarville, Iowa; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ingvald; her grandson, David Egesdal; her parents; her sisters, Othelia Torkelson and Myrtle Olson; her brothers, Joseph, Clifford, infant John, Arthur and John; and her sons-in-law, Carlin Egesdal and Arlyn Rauk. Winter Funeral Home, Buffalo Center