Gladys Oline (Berkenes) ASKELAND

ASKELAND, BERKENES, PIERSON, HAALAND

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 1/23/2007 at 13:10:14

Gladys O. Askeland, 90, of 2305 160th St., Corwith, died Tuesday (Dec. 23, 2003) at Hancock County Memorial Hospital in Britt. A funeral service will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. John Lutheran Church, in Corwith, with the Rev. Kay M. Wold officiating. Burial will be in the Corwith Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 to 7 p.m. today at the Garry-Roberts-Murphy-Schaaf Funeral Home in Corwith, and will continue one hour prior to the service Saturday at the church. Memorials may be directed to St. John Lutheran Church, in memory of Gladys O. Askeland.

Gladys Oline Berkenes was born April 6, 1913, at Gardner, Ill., the eldest child of Peter and Caroline (Pierson) Berkenes. She was baptized in Illinois and later confirmed in the Lutheran faith at Holmes, Iowa. She attended school at Kinsman, Ill., until she moved with her family to a farm near Holmes in 1926. She graduated from Clarion High School in 1931. She then did housework for others and returned home to help her father and youngest brother when her mother died. On Jan. 1, 1938, Gladys married John Askeland at Eagle Grove. The first 10 years of their marriage they farmed near Clare, Iowa. In 1951, they moved to a farm near Corwith where they raised their two sons. Gladys loved being a homemaker for her family. She enjoyed baking, needlework, table games, reading, gardening, and coffee with family and friends. She had the pleasure of taking nine trips to Norway, the land of her heritage and her husband’s birth. She was a member of St. John Lutheran Church where she was active in the altar guild, circle, and quilting groups.

Gladys is survived by her husband of 65 years, John, of rural Corwith; her sons, Gerald and his wife, Jane, of Mason City, and Bernard and his wife, Annette, of Wesley; her grandchildren, Erik and Bret of Mason City and Brandon and Krista of Wesley; her brother, Art and his wife, Johanna, of Eagle Grove; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, Lester and Gaylord; and her sister, Pearl Haaland. Garry-Roberts-Murphy-Schaaf Funeral Home, (515) 583-2469.

DEC. 26, 2003
Mason City Globe Gazette