Esther V. Petersen

ESTHER VIOLA PETERSEN was born on January 27, 1921 to Frank and Sena (Meester) Drost on the family farm near Ash Creek, Minnesota. She was baptized and confirmed at the State Line Presbyterian Church on the Minnesota and Iowa state line. She attended school in Ash Creek, Minnesota. Esther helped her parents at home and later worked at the Sioux Falls Telephone Office and at the Western Cartridge Company in Alton, Illinois. Esther was united in marriage to Roger Petersen of Hardwick, Minnesota on April 25, 1944 at the State Line Presbyterian Church. The couple’s first home was in Fayetville, North Carolina while Roger was stationed at Fort Bragg prior to being sent overseas. Their first child, a son, Elwayne, was born while Roger was on Luzan, serving in the Philippines. Elwayne was one year old when Roger returned. After four years in the service Roger was discharged from the U.S. Army in 1945, and the young family returned to Minnesota, moving on to the Petersen family farm near Hardwick. Their daughter Glenyce was born there and the couple farmed for the next 40 years.

Esther was a member of the United Methodist Church in Luverne, Minnesota. She felt her relationships with other members and her faith to be very important to her. After their retirement in 1984, Esther and Roger left the farm and moved to Luverne. They began spending six months of the year in Fort Meyers, Florida and six months in Luverne. They made wonderful friends in both locations and thoroughly enjoyed traveling the country with their motor home, visiting friends, and fishing. Roger passed away in June of 2005 and Esther moved into the Oaks Apartments in Luverne. She later became a resident at Poplar Creek assisted living and then the Good Samaritan Society – Mary Jane Brown Home in Luverne, where on Saturday December 2, 2017 she died peacefully at the age of 96 years, ten months and six days.

Esther is survived by her two children, Elwayne of Luverne, and Glenyce Lecher and her husband John of Anderson, South Carolina; three grandchildren, Heath Petersen, Jared Petersen and his wife Megan, and Jennifer Young; seven great-grandchildren, Christine, Catherine, and Michael Petersen, Joshua, Rachel Moling, and Isaac Petersen, and Cole Young; a great-great-granddaughter, Charolett Moling; and one brother, Robert Drost and his wife JoAnna of Blue Springs, Missouri. Esther was preceded in death by her husband, Roger; her parents, Frank and Sena Drost; a brother, Elmer Drost and his wife Francis, a sister Louise and her husband Norman Vegge.