Alma Rasmussen, age 95, a resident of Wells for 47 years and formerly of Bricelyn, died Monday, Nov. 27, 2006, at the Parkview Care Center. Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Wells. The Rev. Gerald Giese will officiate. Visitation will be Thursday from 5 until 7 p.m. at the Bruss-Heitner Funeral Home, and one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment will be in Rose Hill Cemetery, Wells.

Alma was born June 22, 1911, in Frost, the sixth of 10 children born to Ellen Hendrickson Savick (born in Brush Creek) and Otto Savick (born in Norway). On Dec. 14, 1931 she married Hans Jergen Rasmussen from Bricelyn.

Education was important to Alma. A graduate of Bricelyn High School, she opted to work her way through grades 9-12 rather than stop following grade 8, as did many of her peers. Keenly interested in local and world events, she regularly read the paper and watched the local and national news. Alma frequently wrote to political representatives about her (many) views and concerns. As anyone who knew her can attest, she mightily enjoyed the give and take of conversation!

A longtime resident of Bricelyn and the mother of three daughters and one son, Alma was a homemaker who worked many summers in the local canning factory. Hans, her husband until his death in 1967 at age 55, served in the Army in World War II, and was taken prisoner late in 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. Home alone with three children to raise and a fourth on the way, uncertain for some time as to whether Hans was dead or alive, Alma was forever grateful to the many good people of Bricelyn who supported her and her family during that time. Her fourth child, Hans Jon, was born just as Hans returned home in June 1945. The family remained in Bricelyn until 1959 when they moved to Wells where Hans worked for the city.

After all four children graduated, Alma began a career as a waitress, first at the White House Caf/ (now the site of Wells Federal Bank) and, later, at the Cook&8217;s Table in Wells. Alma retired in 1976, and moved shortly after to the Broadway Apartment Building (&8217;the high-rise&8217;) where she maintained a much-loved apartment in the company of many friends for over a decade. Following open-heart surgery at age 80, she moved to an assisted living facility, the Shepherd&8217;s Inn in Wells, where she also had many friends and was lovingly cared for by outstanding staff (too many to name, too wonderful to neglect to mention). Prior to her transfer to Parkview earlier this month, Alma had lived at the Shepherd&8217;s Inn longer than any other person currently in residence.

Alma loved a good laugh, friends, family, visitors, conversation (in English and Norwegian), telling jokes, reading, watching Wheel of Fortune, traveling to visit children and grandchildren (last out-of-state trip was to Phoenix in 2000), and traveling in her imagination to many exotic places she did not have an opportunity to visit in the flesh. She seemed to know just about everyone in Wells and Bricelyn, including the children and grand-children of the many friends and family she outlived in her own generation. Over 150 people attended the open house in Wells in celebration of her 90th birthday in 2001, and two dozen family members attended the 95th birthday party held in June 2006 at the Apple Valley home of her son, Jon.

Survivors include daughters Mary Ellen Tomsche of Long Grove, Iowa; Betty Lou Cook of Sun City, Ariz.; and Carol E. Gage of St. Paul; son Hans Jon Rasmussen of Apple Valley; 12 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.

Alma&8217;s husband, parents, and siblings preceded her in death, as did two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Mange tusen takk, Alma! Passer sammen med Gud.