OBITUARY: Sara (Motland) Birkedal, 1891-1971, Mitchell County, Iowa



                        Sara Motland Birkedal

Funeral services will be held Friday, at 2 p.m., for a rural Mitchell
County woman, Mrs. Sara Birkedal, 80, who died at her home Monday, October
4, 1971.  Mrs. Birkedal had not been ill previously and the cause of her
death was listed as a heart attack.  The Rev. Donald L. Berg, church
pastor, will be in charge of the rites at Rock Creek Lutheran Church.

C. R. Champion and Sons are in charge of arrangements, and burial will be
in the Rock Creek Lutheran cemetery.

Sara Christine Motland was born June 15, 1891 in Cedar Township, Mitchell
County, Iowa, to Peter and Martha Maakestad Motland.  She was baptized
and confirmed at Rock Creek Lutheran in the Norwegian language.  She
attended Cedar No. 5 rural school and was graduated from Waldorf College
in Forest City, Iowa.  She also attended the Nora Springs seminary, the
Cedar Valley seminary in Osage, State Normal School in Cedar Falls, Luther
College in Decorah, and the University of Minnesota.

She taught school in Worth and Mitchell Counties, near Decorah, Ossian,
and Everly, Iowa; in Wisconsin; Wilbaux, Montana; Watauga and Philip, South
Dakota; and in Dunn Center, North Dakota.

Peter G. Birkedal and Sara Motland were married January 28, 1917 in Mason
City, Iowa.  Years later the couple divorced.

Mrs. Birkedal was a member of the Rock Creek Lutheran Church, took active
part in affairs of the church, and was interested in missions.

Surviving are her three children: Mrs. John (Marie) Field and Palmer
Birkedal of rural Osage, and Mrs. Philip (Margaret) Luttio of Tokyo, Japan,
where she is a missionary; 13 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; two
brothers, Milton Motland of Palm Beach, Florida, and Ingolf Motland of
Osage; one sister, Alida Motland of Osage; nieces and nephews.

Preceding her in death were her parents, three brothers and one sister,
Mrs. Clara Bratrud, and one grandson, David Birkedal.



       Copyright 2005, Steve Norby