OBITUARY: Alida Nina Motland, 1906-2005, Mitchell County, Iowa

[ Posted Nov. 16, 2005 - www.mcpress.com  - Mitchell County Press-News ]


Funeral services for Alida Nina Motland, age 99, of Osage, Iowa, will be
held on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2005, at Rock Creek Lutheran Church, rural
Osage.

Officiating pastors will be Alida's nephews, Philip Luttio, Stephen Luttio,
Mark Luttio, Paul Anderson, Paul Birkedal, John Bates, Andrew Anderson,
and Nate Johnstone; and local pastor Rev. R. Dawson Tornes.  Burial will
be in the Rock Creek Cemetery.

Alida died Sunday, November 13, 2005, at Faith Home in Osage.

Alida Nina Motland was born February 25, 1906, on the family farm in West
Cedar Township, Mitchell County, Iowa, the daughter of Peder Andreas
Ingemundsen and Martha (Maakestad) Motland. Alida and her stillborn twin
sister were the youngest of nine children. The oldest were twin boys who
died in infancy.

Alida was baptized March 12, 1906, and confirmed June 27, 1920, by Rev. J.A.
Urness at the Rock Creek Lutheran Church. She attended Cedar No. 5 country
school, one mile from home, where she also taught one year following
graduation from Osage High School in 1924. From 1925-27, she attended
St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and in 1929 she graduated from Iowa
State College at Ames.

Alida taught Music and Home Economics for 13 years in South Dakota,
Minnesota and Iowa. She was also Home Management Supervisor with the Farm
Security Administration in Minnesota and Home Agent with the University
of Minnesota Extension Service for six and one half years.

She retired in 1960, when she and her brother Ingolf moved from the farm to
Osage. Interspersed throughout these and following years, she was a
caregiver for her elderly parents, who died in 1937 and 1949, and for her
brother Ingolf, who contracted polio in 1937 and died in 1976.

Music was central to Alida's life. She shared her musical talents with the
entire North Iowa community, and she inspired many in the next generations
with their musical study. She achieved recognition already during her high
school years in Osage, when she was remembered by one classmate as "the
most piano playingist girl he ever knew".  At Iowa State College, she was
a member of the Sigma Alpha Iota music sorority. Alida served Rock Creek
Lutheran Church for over 40 years as organist, pianist, and director of
the Senior Choir and Ladies' Chorus. Upon her retirement in 1987, she
received a plaque that read as follows: "To Alida Motland, whose life of
excellence in music has allowed us, the members of Rock Creek Lutheran
Church, to share in the joy that is music."

Alida was also a member of the Morning Musicale and played for Sons of
Norway and the community "Messiah". She played violin in orchestras at
St. Olaf College, Ames, North Iowa and Austin.
She played as both pianist and violinist (often with her brother, Ingolf)
at nursing homes in Osage, Mason City, St. Ansgar, Nora Springs, Manly and
Charles City. In recent years, she also played at the Osage Senior Center.
Alida never gave up playing. In her early 80's, she made a 90 minute
recording of pieces that she had memorized.

Although music was Alida's first love, she had many other interests and
hobbies; generous philanthropy, Norwegian dialect readings, travel talks,
scrapbooks, photo albums, needlework, art work, sewing and baking. She
also was an avid traveler. She made seven trips to Norway, where she
established a strong contact with many Norwegian relatives. She also
visited other countries in Europe, Japan, southeast Asia, Canada, Mexico,
Nassau, Hawaii and throughout the United States.

In later years, her activities were curtailed by eye problems, which
eventually necessitated her entering a nursing home. Alida greatly blessed
the lives of her family, her community and her world. She will be missed
by everyone. We are thankful for the many years that she shared her talents
and resources with us. 

Champion-Bucheit Funeral Home, Osage, is in charge of arrangements.