Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 271938
Title: Elsie M. Gilbertson
Date: 9/28/1933-11/15/2025
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 9/28/1933
Summary: Elsie Marilyn Gilbertson, 92, formerly of Charlson, ND, passed away peacefully November 15, 2025 at her residence in Bismarck, ND. A funeral was held November 20, 2025, at First Lutheran Church in Keene, ND, with burial in Good Hope Cemetery, Keene. Elsie was born on September 28, 1933, to August and Louise Keller at their family farm a few miles north of Beulah, ND, in Mercer County. Elsie’s education began in a one-room rural elementary school that consisted of grades 1-8. After the 8th grade she went to a town school in Beulah that she didn’t favor and dropped out for a while before returning to elementary school for another year, and then moved on to Beulah High School. There she decided that school was not so bad, earned her diploma, and enrolled in college at what was then known as the North Dakota Agricultural School, better known now as NDSU, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in home economics. She then began a career in teaching high school in New Salem, ND, where she taught students the finer aspects of home economics. She taught in New Salem for several years before expanding her horizons and accepted a position as the home economics teacher in Cordova, Alaska, a small, isolated town that was only accessible by airplane. She taught there only one year and came back to teach at Beulah High School for another several years. Elsie’s next career move after leaving teaching was to move to Williston, ND and becoming a Williams County Home Extension Agent. Soon after this new adventure she met Lee Gilbertson and he quickly asked for her hand in marriage. They were married at Zion Lutheran Church in Beulah, and started their new, beautiful life together on a farm near Charlson in McKenzie County. While Lee operated the farm, she enjoyed typical farm wife life helping with the chores, cooking meals, delivering meals to the fields, maintaining the farm yard, and growing flowers that she cherished dearly. In addition to her farm life, Elsie was an active member of Keene First Lutheran Church where she served in various capacities from music to church council, and was also active and well known throughout the Western Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). Elsie was a very kind, giving, supportive, welcoming, and generous philanthropist. When generosity and kindness were required, she was among the first to respond. Elsie is survived by her sister, Irma, of Bismarck, and many cousins, nephews, and nieces. She was preceded in death by her husband, Leland, and her parents.
Red ID: FND_I_79432 Image ID: 541652 Image Notes: FND001 271938

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

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