Monday, January 26, 2015

Beverly Rolfsrud 1920-2015

Beverly Brown Rolfsrud, 94, musician, teacher, wife and mother of six, died peacefully January 26, 2015 at a residential home in Bloomington, Minnesota, near her family. Funeral services will be held Jan. 31 at Shalom Lutheran in Alexandria, a church she helped found in 1982.

With her late husband as accompanist, the accomplished contralto soloist performed Sacred Concerts throughout the Upper Midwest. In 1967, she recorded an album of sacred music with selections from Handel's Messiah and other composers.

Over the years, she taught hundreds of young adults the rudiments of music and the joy of performing.

Born in Hettinger, North Dakota in 1920, she graduated high school in Fargo, attended Wheaton College in Illinois, then joined her husband in Moorhead where she was the first married woman to graduate from Concordia College. They moved to Deerwood in 1945 and she gave private music lessons and continued raising her children. In 1952, the Rolfsruds  moved to Alexandria near Lake Andrew and Beverly continued to teach music and lead church choirs. She briefly taught music in the Brooten, Minnesota schools. She enjoyed quilting, cross-country skiing, tennis and swimming.

Beverly is survived by her six children: Becky (Allen) Jerdee, Venice, FL, Linda (Ronald) Letnes, Blaine, MN, Stan (Kathleen) Rolfsrud, Shakopee, MN, Solveig (William) Shearer, Sunol, CA, Stephen (Nancy) Rolfsrud, Mankato MN, and Virgil Rolfsrud, Fort Meyers, FL; 15 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

In addition to her husband Erling, she was preceded in death by her daughters-in-law Jeni (Virgil) Rolfsrud and Becky Lynn (Virgil) Rolfsrud, brothers Ralph Brown, Richard Brown, and Bayard Brown, and sisters Dorothy Chase and Kaye Eichenberger.

Outside her home in Alexandria