Edna
Edna Gustafson
d. February 13, 2008
Edna Snyder Gustafson of St Peter quietly left this life on Wednesday, 13 February. She had been a resident of Grandview Good Samaritan Care Center in St Peter for the past four months.
Edna was born 19 August 1905 on the Lake Prairie farm that her grandfather Ole Lokensgard had homesteaded in the 1860s. She was one of five children in the family of Nels and Oline Snyder. Ruth Larson of St Peter is now the only surviving member of that Snyder family. After some years in country schools Edna attended the School of Agriculture in St Paul and graduated in 1923.
Edna obtained her teaching certificate from what was then Mankato Normal and taught for two years in Granby Township, a year near Redwood Falls, and then for four years in District 27 of Oshawa Township. She loved teaching and thrived on it. In a typical country school teacher pattern, her last position led to courtship and marriage to Rudy Gustafson, a most eligible Oshawa farmer. After farming for a few years on what was known as the Gessner place near the sand prairie they rented a farm outside of Cleveland. In 1945 they purchased the Henning farm in lower Oshawa and lived there until Rudy's death in 1976. Edna lived at the Realife Cooperative for a dozen years before moving to Grandview.
Edna and Rudy raised two children: Don, who is a professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis (and now lives on the home farm) and Evelyn, who works as a transcriptionst in Houston, Texas. For several years Ernie Zinke of Mankato was a foster child in their home. In the late 50s and early 60s Edna did substitute teaching in the St Peter elementary schools and then was a teacher for homebound students. She was a member of First Lutheran Church and involved in the usual Sunday School, Ladies Aid and Missionary Society activities. While living in Oshawa she was on the district #38 school board and active in 4-H Club work and in the community garden club.
Edna Gustafson was very supportive of her children and tremendously proud of her six grandchildren: Jeff Gustafson in Minneapolis; Marya Gustafson in Waseca; Peter Gustafson in Chicago; David Lawson in Dallas; Brian Lawson in Philadelphia; and Linda Childress in San Diego.
She provided a remarkable model of continuing wide interests while gracefully growing old. Her neighbors at Realife in St Peter reported that she was still playing a wicked game of bridge at age 102 and her daughter-in-law, Beverly Gustafson, has a list of the 674 books (audio and print) from the St Peter Public Library that she went through in the last six years.
A memorial service will be held at First Lutheran Church in St Peter on Saturday, 23 February at 11:00 a.m. There will be an informal and open gathering of friends on Friday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 in the Great Room at Realife, 500 West Jackson Street. Undesignated memorials will go to Resurrection Cemetery or to the St Peter Public Library.
Edna was born 19 August 1905 on the Lake Prairie farm that her grandfather Ole Lokensgard had homesteaded in the 1860s. She was one of five children in the family of Nels and Oline Snyder. Ruth Larson of St Peter is now the only surviving member of that Snyder family. After some years in country schools Edna attended the School of Agriculture in St Paul and graduated in 1923.
Edna obtained her teaching certificate from what was then Mankato Normal and taught for two years in Granby Township, a year near Redwood Falls, and then for four years in District 27 of Oshawa Township. She loved teaching and thrived on it. In a typical country school teacher pattern, her last position led to courtship and marriage to Rudy Gustafson, a most eligible Oshawa farmer. After farming for a few years on what was known as the Gessner place near the sand prairie they rented a farm outside of Cleveland. In 1945 they purchased the Henning farm in lower Oshawa and lived there until Rudy's death in 1976. Edna lived at the Realife Cooperative for a dozen years before moving to Grandview.
Edna and Rudy raised two children: Don, who is a professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis (and now lives on the home farm) and Evelyn, who works as a transcriptionst in Houston, Texas. For several years Ernie Zinke of Mankato was a foster child in their home. In the late 50s and early 60s Edna did substitute teaching in the St Peter elementary schools and then was a teacher for homebound students. She was a member of First Lutheran Church and involved in the usual Sunday School, Ladies Aid and Missionary Society activities. While living in Oshawa she was on the district #38 school board and active in 4-H Club work and in the community garden club.
Edna Gustafson was very supportive of her children and tremendously proud of her six grandchildren: Jeff Gustafson in Minneapolis; Marya Gustafson in Waseca; Peter Gustafson in Chicago; David Lawson in Dallas; Brian Lawson in Philadelphia; and Linda Childress in San Diego.
She provided a remarkable model of continuing wide interests while gracefully growing old. Her neighbors at Realife in St Peter reported that she was still playing a wicked game of bridge at age 102 and her daughter-in-law, Beverly Gustafson, has a list of the 674 books (audio and print) from the St Peter Public Library that she went through in the last six years.
A memorial service will be held at First Lutheran Church in St Peter on Saturday, 23 February at 11:00 a.m. There will be an informal and open gathering of friends on Friday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 in the Great Room at Realife, 500 West Jackson Street. Undesignated memorials will go to Resurrection Cemetery or to the St Peter Public Library.
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