Bernita Olson

Bernita E. Olson, aged 78, passed away at 11:30 am on Tuesday, December 20, 2005. She is survived by her two sons, Keith and Dean, and a brother, Richard O. Carleton. Bernita had been suffering with a liver ailment and despite careful attention to diet and medication, her liver finally stopped functioning.

She was born in a Swedish community on the northeast side of Minneapolis, MN on March 21, 1927. Her parents were second generation Americans, and the home she grew up in at 1928 Garfield was built by her Swedish grandfather, the first house in a previously undeveloped area. Fore years it had been a semi agricultural neighborhood, but by the time Bernita was born Minneapolis had engulfed the house and she grew up as a city girl.

Bernita was a very good student, getting straight A grades from kindergarten through graduate school, except for an occasional "B" in gym classes. She was co-valedictorian at the agricultural campus of the University of Minnesota, where she met her husband Allard. She did not have a career until in her late 40s, at which time was a dietetic consultant and later worked for the VA hospital in Topeka. She had some adventures as the wife of an international executive earlier in life.

The Olson family moved from Minneapolis to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1962. Allard had been offered a job with the overseas division of International Harvester, and the opportunity was too good to pass up. After 3 years in Denmark, the family was transferred to Sweden for 2 years, and then to Topeka in 1967. While in Europe, the Olson family traveled fairly extensively, and Bernita looked up her family roots. A lot of Swedish branches of the family tree were found, and some living relatives turned out to look eerily similar to their American cousins.

She was not able to trace a mysterious French lineage, from which had come her Grandmother Matilda de Nord, but Bernita never stopped trying. When son Keith spent some time working in Stockholm during 1998, he hired a genealogical researcher at Bernita's request. There were traces of the du Nords in Sweden, but very few, and no record of the family immigrating to Sweden from France, which occurred sometime in the middle 1800s. Bernita's family lore held that they were fugitives, but not criminals - and connected with some sort of aristocracy. More than that she never learned, and could confirm nothing of the legend.

Bernita Olson will be remembered by those who knew her as a capable, kind and hard working woman, who was not particularly driving by material reward. She was frugal, as has been typical for those who came of age during the great depression, but also generous in many ways. She was like others of her generation in many ways - a group recently described as "the greatest generation". She was certainly deserving of that tribute.

Funeral services for Bernita Olson will be Friday, December 23, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. at Our Saviors Lutheran Church. Burial will follow at Penwell-Gabel's Memorial Park Cemetery. Mrs. Olson will lie in state after at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, at Penwell-Gabel Mid Town Chapel. Memorial contributions may be made to Our Saviors Lutheran Church, 2021 SW 28th St., Topeka, KS 66611. To leave a special message for the family online, visit www.PenwellGabel.com