Swanson Peterson Funeral Home

Wayne L. Wilson passed away at the St. Cloud Hospital on 12/13/2013.

Funeral Service; 1PM Friday December 20, 2013 at Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cokato

Visitation; 4-8 PM Thursday at Swanson-Peterson Funeral Home of Cokato and 1hr prior to service at church on Friday.

Prayer service: 7 PM Thursday at the funeral home

Interment; Ft. Snelling National Cemetery

Florence Lucile Larson was born January 16, 1917 at her parent’s home in Middleville Township to Peter and Minnie Larson.  She was baptized on February 8, 1917 and confirmed in June of 1932 by Rev. Alex Sand at Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church, Albion Township.  She graduated from Cokato High School in June of 1934. She did housework, babysitting and sewing for friends and neighbors.  She took care of her parents until their deaths.  Her father died in September of 1958 and her mother died in February of 1967.  She worked in the Ebenezer Home in Buffalo from 1967 to 1978 when she retired.  She has been active in the Mt. Hermon Lutheran Church all her life where she taught Sunday school and vacation Bible school. She was financial secretary for the church for 20 years and was also a member and secretary of Cokato Senior Citizens.  She lived on the farm until Sept. 30, 2013 when she moved into Brookridge Assisted Living in Cokato.  She passed away on Dec. 3, 2013 at Cokato Manor.

Lucile was preceded in death by her parents Peter and Minnie Larson, her sister Hulda and brother-in-law George Johnson. Survivors are her nephews Leo (Jennie) Johnson and Glen (Diane) Johnson, great nephews Ted Miller, Thomas Johnson, great nieces Tara Humlie (Ben), Anna Johnson, Lucia Johnson, Kirsten (Cevin) Christopherson and great-great niece Destyne Miller.

A funeral service for Lucile took place at 11:00 am on Saturday, December 7 at Mount Hermon Lutheran Church in rural Annandale. Visitation was held 1 hour prior to the service at the church and internment followed the service at the church cemetery.

Doris Janet Terning, 84

Doris Janet Terning of Cokato died peacefully Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013 in the home of Gary and Dixie Terning of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

She was born September 21, 1929 in Ashby, Minnesota, the daughter of Arthur and Tressie “Victoria” Bushkowsky.  Doris grew up in Dassel where her parents had a farm and raised vegetables.  She attended Dassel High School and graduated Salutatorian of the class in 1947.

She was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith and is a member of Stockholm Lutheran Church.

After high school she was an office employee of the Green Giant Canning Company in LeSueur, Minnesota. Meeting Ralph there they were married in 1952 and resided on the rural Terning farm until retirement and moving to Cokato in 1992. On September 15, 2013 she moved to Chattanooga while struggling with her third occurrence of cancer.

Doris was active in her church being a member of the Doris Club as well as the Cokato Historical Society.  Her interests included antiquing especially collecting Viking glass.  She also enjoyed genealogy and family history.

She will be sadly missed by her children: Gary (Dixie)of Chattanooga TN, Eugene (Deb) of Pleasant Prairie WI, Dean (Tonya) of Cokato, Dennis of Cokato; grandchildren Leigha (Ben) King, Landon (J) Terning, Jamie, Joshua, Justin, Jordan , Rachael (Derek) Desens and Tanner, great grandchildren Alex, Warner, River, Morgan, Paige; and a sister Ephra Novotny of Pine River, MN.

Doris was preceded in death by her husband of 42 years Ralph; brother Forest and parents, Arthur and Tressie “Victoria”.

A Memorial Service is Saturday, Dec. 7 at 2 pm Stockholm Lutheran Church.

Visitation is Friday, Dec. 6 from 4 to 8 pm Swanson-Peterson Funeral Home in Cokato.

Lois passed away at the Howard Lake Good Samaritan Center of Howard Lake on 11/14/2013.

Funeral Service: 2PM Monday 11/18/2013 at Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cokato

Visitation: 4-9 PM Sunday at Swanson-Peterson Funeral Home of Cokato and 1hr prior to service at church on Monday

Prayer Service: 8PM Sunday at the funeral home

Interment: Cokato City Cemetery

Lois Caroline “Babe” Gustafson was born on October 28, 1919,
to Cecil and Marie (Nelson) Triplett, she was to be the fifth of eight
children.  Her family moved many times
while she was growing up, but eventually settled in Howard Lake.  She has many fond memories of visits with her
grandparents in Delano
during that time.  They taught their
grandchildren how to play store and instilled in them the value of a dollar.

Babe married Devore Gustafson on May 3, 1940, in Iowa the couple were wed
by Reverend Thomes.  They made their home
in Cokato.  Babe and Devore were married
for 51 years.  Devore died in 1991 which
was a huge loss for her and her family.  They
had two children: David and Mary.  David
died in 2001, he and his wife Sue had two children, Amy and Matthew.  Matt now has four children, all girls.  Mary and her husband Herman live in Illinois; they have two
girls; Erica and Amanda.  Erica has two
children, a girl and a boy and Amanda has one child a girl.  Babe has enjoyed being a grandma and felt
especially lucky to have lived long enough to enjoy her great
grandchildren.  Babe is also survived by
her brother Duane and sister Marlys.

Babe and Devore had the theater in Cokato for 10 years,
Devore running the projector and Babe booking the movies, selling tickets,
popcorn and candy.  She recalled that
time as some of the best years of her life, particularly when they were showing
“The Ten Commandments”.  Babe also had a
very green thumb, she could get anything to grow, she loved to garden and mow
the lawn.  At one time she had a large
raspberry patch and sold them to Blaha’s Grocery Store.  She liked to put her kids, nephews and nieces
on “weed patrol”, a phrase that still makes us cringe.  She had great success with plants she
received while being in Good Samaritan, some of which she had to give away
because they got so big.

Babe passed away at Good Samaritan Center of Howard Lake on November 14, 2013.  She had reached the age of 94 years and 16
days.  She was preceded in death by: her
parents Cecil and Marie, husband Devore, son David, and siblings Irwin, Roger,
Robert, Irene, and Donald.

Opal Elaine (Longwell) Hedlund

Opal Elaine (Longwell) Hedlund, age 93, died Thursday, September 12, 2013. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, September 21 at 11:00 A.M. at North Crow River Lutheran Church, rural Cokato with Rev. Michael Nelson officiating.  Interment will be at Sunset Cemetery immediately following the services. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 P.M. on Friday, September 20 at North Crow River Lutheran Church and one hour prior to the services.

Opal was born on February 24, 1920 in Maine Prairie Township, Stearns County Minnesota to Frank and Edith (Cornall) Longwell.  She grew up in Maine Prairie Township, attending country school at Brown School District 32.  She attended Kimball High School and was a 1938 graduate.

Opal married William Sexton Hedlund on June 29, 1940 at the Kimball Church of Christ parsonage.  They initially made their home on the Hedlund family farm and briefly farmed with Sexton’s brother Hjalmer near Rothsay, Minnesota.  During WW II they moved to the San Francisco, California area for a short time while Sexton worked in the naval shipyards.  They returned to Minnesota and eventually purchased a farm adjacent to the Hedlund family farm in Kingston Township where she lived her remaining years.  Opal spent most of her adult life as a mother and farm wife, but also worked for a number of years at Fabri-Tek Manufacturing  in Cokato.  She was an accomplished seamstress and loved to crochet and quilt.

Opal is survived by her five children, Kay Anderson of Dassel, Dean of Annandale, Darrel (Nancy) of Kingston, Linda (Alan) Hewitt of Kasota, and Dale of Kingston.  She is also survived by 9 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren, and 5 great great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Sexton in 1994, son-in-law Jim Anderson, brothers LaVerne and Merton, sisters Alvina Ferrier and Lois Rinkel.

Opal was a member of the Litchfield chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the Kingston American Legion Auxiliary, Kingston Garden Club, and Grace Lutheran Church.

A thank you goes out to the Pouliot family, Yvonne Russ, and other friends, neighbors, and relatives who were so kind to Opal over the past few years.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Grace Lutheran Church, Sunset Cemetery Association, Kingston Legion Auxiliary, or donor’s choice.