Bernita Severson

Bernita Severson, age 90, formerly of rural Mapleton, died at Peaceful Valley Care Home in Prescott, AZ on April 10, 2009. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 18th at 11:00 a.m. at her home congregation, Medo Lutheran Church, rural Mapleton with Pastor David Danner officiating. Interment will be in the church cemetery. A memorial service will be held at the American Lutheran Church in Prescott on April 25 at 10:00 a.m. with Pastor Wallace Cole officiating. Memorial gifts may be sent to: Navajo Lutheran Mission, Box 354, Rock Point, AZ. 86545. Arnoldt-McRaith Funeral Home of Janesville, Minnesota is handling arrangements. She was born in rural Mapleton, Minnesota on May 3, 1918 to Edward and Ida (Beise) Severson. She attended St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, and graduated from Iowa State College with a degree in home economics. Bernita taught high school home economics and worked as a county home extension agent in Minnesota. She returned to her farm home to care for her father when he developed what we now recognize as Alzheimer's disease. After the death of both her father and mother, Bernita served as parish worker in Lutheran churches in Duluth, MN, Garden Grove, CA, and Mankato, MN. She served for twenty two years at Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission, Rock Point, AZ, first as cook for the Navajo school children and then as education director for the developing Navajo congregation. At age 65, Bernita volunteered to work in Papua New Guinea. For a year she lived on a small island off the coast of PNG, teaching home economics at the Lutheran school there. The following year she returned to Rock Point and worked there until her retirement in 1990, when she moved to Prescott. She was a member of American Evangelical Lutheran Church. Eleven years ago Bernita developed Alzheimer's disease. For nearly seven years she lived at Peaceful Valley Care Home where she received loving care. She is survived by several second cousins, the Wallace Cole family who "adopted" her many years ago, and a large group of friends. She is survived by extended family. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Charles.