Shirley Jeneva (Soma) GABRIELSON

GABRIELSON, MICHELSON, SOMA, SMITH, CRABB, MEYERS, SEBERT, HILL, MORRIS, DORENKAMP, MEHL, KLOBERDANZ

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/21/2016 at 19:44:02

April 29, 1909 ---- December 30, 1999

BELMOND, IA - Shirley Jeneva Gabrielson, 90, of Belmond, passed away Thursday (Dec. 30, 1999) at Freeman East Hospital in Joplin, Mo. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Belmond, with Pastor Lowell Halvorson officiating. Burial will take place in the Belmond Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. today at the Dugger Ewing Funeral Home in Belmond and will continue for one hour prior to services at the church.

Shirley, the daughter of Elling J. and Anna Margaret (Michelson) Soma, was born on April 29, 1909, on a farm in Wright County near Kanawha. She was the seventh child of 11 children. She was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith. She attended country school and graduated from Kanawha High School in 1927. After graduating she received her teaching certificate from Iowa State Teachers College. Shirley taught rural schools in the Wright County, Kanawha area for five years.

She was united in marriage to Elmer Gabrielson at Shirley's parents' home in Norway Township on Feb. 14, 1935. The couple started farming near Holmes, Iowa, later farming west of Belmond. Upon retirement, they moved into Belmond. Elmer passed away in December of 1994. Shirley resided at the Belmond Community Apartments at the time of her death. She loved playing with her grandchildren. Shirley also enjoyed baking Kringla, sewing and making afghans.

Shirley is survived by one daughter, Sharon, and her husband, Dr. William Smith, of Miami, Okla.; two sons, Gary and his wife, Charlotte Gabrielson, of Belmond, and Dr. Glen and his wife, Yvonne Gabrielson, of Dothan, Ala.; 12 grandchildren, Rodney and his wife, Dawn Gabrielson, Randy and his wife, Tracy Gabrielson, Roxann and her husband, Mike Crabb, Rozlyn Gabrielson, Kenneth and Sissy Smith, Janie and her husband, Richard Meyers, and Tony, Bridget, John, Audra and Allison Gabrielson; four great-grandchildren, Alexander and Alyssa Gabrielson, Melissa Crabb and Morgan Meyers; four sisters, Bernice Sebert, a resident of the Belmond Care Center, Adelaide Hill of Belmond, Viola and her husband, Francis Morris, of Belmond, and Margaret and her husband, Alvin Dorenkamp, of Clear Lake, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Elmer; four brothers, Jovial, Norris, Malvin and Elmer Soma; and two sisters, Gladys Mehl and June Kloberdanz.

January 4, 2000
Mason City Globe Gazette -- Mason City, IA