Grace Larson died peacefully at the Clarkfield Care Center on September 4, 2019 at the age of 103.
Memorial services will be held on Saturday, September 14, 2019 at 2:00 PM at the Clarkfield Care Center.
Visitation will be held for one hour before the service at the care center. Funeral arrangements are being made by the Lynner Funeral Home of Clarkfield.
Grace Luella (Weeks) Larson was born near Guilford, Montana on March 12, 1916. Her parents, George and Hilda (Anderson) Weeks, homesteaded in Montana in 1912. Grace was one of nine children. Her siblings, Willard, Morris, Raymond, Clarence, Fran, Esther, Alice, and Lillian, are all deceased.
The family left Montana in 1923 after the homestead suffered severe drought and swarms of grasshoppers. They moved to Clarkfield where Grace's father served as the town policeman for many years. Her mother, Hilda, was someone Grace was close to, especially during Grace’s early bouts of migraines. Grace attended Clarkfield Schools. In third grade, her teacher was the familiar Estella Troke. (She also taught third grade to Grace’s three children.) Grace graduated from high school in 1934 and worked at the Red Owl grocery where she and her soon-to-be husband, Olaf Larson, enjoyed their first kiss.
In 1936, Grace married Olaf at Augustana Lutheran Church. They had three children, Allen, Marlys and Georgia, and raised them in town. Grace and Olaf were blessed with 11 grandchildren who loved to visit them at their cabin on Lake Minnewaska. They had 26 great grandchildren, and 3 great-great grandchildren, many of whom still live in Minnesota. Sadly, two grandsons and a great granddaughter are deceased.
In addition to being a mother and homemaker, Grace contributed to the family farming business. She was the bookkeeper and the cook, serving a large noonday meal every weekday for the hired help on the farm. Grace also grew her own vegetables. She canned fruits and pickles for her basement pantry. Her family especially remember her baked bread, fruit soup, baked beans, fried fish and wild game. Olaf was the fisherman and hunter but Grace cleaned and cooked the meals. “She never left any bones in her fish.”
Grace also wrote wonderful letters to family and friends, writing as if she were talking to you, face to face at the kitchen table. She would put a simple return address: Mrs. Olaf Larson, Clarkfield, MN, 56223. Sometimes you had to read “between the lines”.
Olaf and Grace committed their lives to Christ in an altar call in the 1950s. She taught Sunday School for many years as a lifelong member of the Augustana Lutheran Church. Grace is remembered by friends and family as a kind and caring person who knew Jesus in a personal way. She lived her Christian faith with a quiet and humble spirit.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Grace Luella Weeks Larson to the Clarkfield Care Center, Clarkfield, Minnesota.
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