Thorsen, LaVona I. (Severin) 1920-2017

THORSEN, SEVERIN, KOLLENBERG, GILES, SHEPARD, SPENCER, HAVEN, HASS, STEFFY

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 7/13/2021 at 21:35:29

LaVona I. (Severin) Thorsen
September 5, 1920 ~ December 2, 2017 (age 97)

LaVona has been cremated and her memorial service will be held next spring.

Memorials to the Good Cheer Class of the First Lutheran Church or to the Jasper County Genealogy Society may be left at the funeral home. Memorials may also be mailed to the funeral home, please add, Attn: Thorsen Family on the envelope.

LaVona I. Severin Thorsen, the daughter of Fredrick and Fredricka (Knollenberg) Severin was born on September 5, 1920 in Hallam, Nebraska. Her mother passed away when she was one year old and she was raised by her father, grandparents and later her step mother, Hazel Giles Severin. LaVona graduated from Hallam High School and the Lincoln Beauty in Lincoln, Nebraska. She worked in the engineering department of Convair Air Craft during WW II.

On August 29, 1943, LaVona married Donald O. Thorsen of Chicago and San Diego. They returned to the Midwest, settling in Newton, Iowa in 1947. In the ensuing years, she served as a Cub Scout den mother, Campfire leader, Sunday school teacher and PTA officer. In 1965, she returned to work as an inventory control clerk at the Vernon Company, retiring 17 years later. In her later years, she traveled extensively, visiting more than 24 different countries in Europe and Asia, as well as Australia, New Zealand and most of the United States.

LaVona was a member of the First Lutheran Church, Dorcas, The Good Cheer Class and the Jasper County Genealogy Society, where she volunteered for 10 years. She also did volunteer work as an advocate at the former County Home.

LaVona a native of Nebraska and a 70-year resident of Newton died on Saturday, December 2, 2017 at Park Centre in Newton.

She was 97. She was preceded in death by her parents, stepmother, husband, Don in 1986 and brother, Glen Severin.

Those left to cherish LoVona’s memory are her daughter and son-in-law, Gayle and Lansing Shepard of Minneapolis, Minnesota; her son and daughter-in-law, Bruce and Jan Thorsen of Clive, Iowa; four grandchildren, Jill Thorsen Spencer (Bobby) of Memphis, Tennessee, Heidi (Marc) Haven of Clive, Mark (Jessica) Thorsen of Atlanta, Georgia and Lindsey Thorsen of Clive; five great-granddaughters; her two sisters, Norma Jean Hass of Lincoln, Nebraska and Mary Jo Steffy of Walla Walla, Washington; and nieces and nephews. ~ The Wallace Family Funeral Home, Newton, Iowa Sat 02 Dec 2017.