OBITUARY: Agnes Cleveland, 1904-2003, Worth Co., Iowa



                             Agnes Cleveland
  
[ Northwood Anchor online - www.northwoodanchor.com - February 25, 2003 ]
 
 
Agnes Cleveland, 98, of Kensett, died Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2003, at the
Lutheran Retirement Home in Northwood.

Funeral services were. Friday at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Kensett,
with Rev. Selmer G. (Sam) Hernes officiating. Burial was in the South
Shell Rock Cemetery in Northwood.  Conner Colonial Chapel, Northwood,
was in charge of the arrangements.

Agnes Cleveland was born on Dec. 7, 1904, the second daughter of Alvin
and Oline (Olson) Ranum in Northwood. She lived most of her life in
Northwood, Kensett, or rural Worth County. When their mother died in
1908, Agnes and her sister were raised by their maternal grandparents,
the Honorable Herbrand Langeberg and Raghnild Mikkelson Olson. Agnes
was a graduate of the Northwood High School Class of 1923, she also
attended Waldorf College and went on to teach several years in rural
Worth County schools. Agnes also was a bookkeeper for the Boyette
Construction Company during World War II and later was the Kensett
Librarian.

She married Ole Cleveland in 1927, at the Elk Creek Lutheran Church,
rural Kensett.

Agnes had a number of interests, being a member of Bethany Lutheran
Church in Kensett and active in its instrumental and vocal programs.
Agnes was bilingual, English and Norwegian, and later in life also
took an interest in Spanish, this due to several Latino friends. She
was particularly proud of her heritage with its roots in the Valdres
Valley and Hallingdal in south central Norway. She also had an interest
in politics and always maintained that she voted for the person, and
not the party, but family members are skeptical of that claim. She read
widely, fiction or non-fiction. In her nineties, she also became an
avid fan of the Iowa Hawkeye basketball team and would have regular
phone calls with her neighbor, Ida Dilts, discussing its fortunes.

Agnes had a deep religious faith, and it was this that sustained her
on the occasions when she suffered the loss of close family members.

Left to cherish her memory include a son, Travis Cleveland and his
wife Rebecca of Dorchester, IA; nine grandchildren and 15 great-
grandchildren; two half sisters, Clarice Paulson of Mason City and
Janice Meier of Gainesville, FL.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Ole Cleveland
in 1968; two children, Harvey in infancy, daughter, Ruth Mathahs in
1984; sister, Randine Thronson; granddaughter Rebecca Mathahs in
infancy, and a great grandson, Jack Cleveland.
 



Copyright (c) 2003 by Kermit Kittleson
(Note: Not necessarily related to the subject of this obituary.)
This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives.