AUSTIN — The funeral for Margaret L. Bjerke will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, with the Rev. Ron Barnett officiating. Interment will be in Grandview Cemetery, Austin.
Mrs. Bjerke, 84, of Austin, died Tuesday (April 8, 2008) at St. Mark’s Lutheran Home.
Margaret Lorraine Peterson was born Nov. 26, 1923, in rural Dexter. She graduated from high school in Elkton, then attended teachers training in Austin for one year. She taught country school in the Pleasant Valley and Dexter areas for four years. On Aug. 2, 1946, she married E. Kenneth Bjerke at Evanger Lutheran Church. She was a member of St. Olaf Lutheran Church, where she was in the choir for many years and was also a member of circle. In her spare time she grew roses and tuberous begonias. She liked to read and especially enjoyed listening to music and attending concerts. She was a member of the Mower County Senior Center, the Mower County Humane Society, the Historical Society and the Nature Center. Mrs. Bjerke particularly liked sending correspondence to family and friends for all occasions, and also loved photography and traveling in her motorhome with family.
Survivors include her husband; four sons, Brian (Susanne) of Turtle Lake, Wis., Danny (Kay) of Mason City, Iowa, Gary (Theanne) of Bakersfield, Calif., and Scott (Susan) of Eagan, Minn.; nine grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; a sister, Ruth (Gene) Vermilyea of Stewartville; and two brothers, Raymond (Shirley) Peterson of Dexter and Martin (Eillene) Peterson of Cross Lake, Minn. She was preceded in death by a brother, Clarence.
Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at Worlein Funeral Home in Austin, and an hour before the service Saturday at the church.
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The family prefers memorials to St. Olaf Lutheran Church.
