Mildred Fagerness

Mildred Mary Fagerness was the youngest of five children born to August and Louisa (Niebes) Studt on April 12, 1915 on the family farm in Eden Township of Pipestone County, near Jasper, Minnesota. She was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith. She attended rural grade school and graduated from Jasper High School in 1932. After attending Nettleton Business College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, she was employed as the secretary in the County Extension Office in Pipestone for several years. Mildred obtained a Civil Service rating and spent a year in Washington, D.C., during World War II. She was employed in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce in the Commercial Intelligence Unit. She was called home to Pipestone to aid in caring for her sick father. Later Mildred served as Chief Clerk in the Farm Program Office in Pipestone.

Mildred married Harold Fagerness at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Pipestone on December 31, 1945. They lived in Pipestone for a time while establishing a new farmstead in Eden Township. They moved to their new farmstead near Jasper in July, 1946. Mildred was a member of the Jasper Evangelical Lutheran Church where she was active in Ladies’ Aid and Circles and also taught Sunday School in her younger years. She was also a member of the Jasper American Auxiliary for many years. After losing Harold in January, 1966, she stayed on the farm until 1995 when she moved to an apartment in Pipestone. While on the farm, she enjoyed the outdoors, planting flowers and gardening. She enjoyed traveling and went on several senior citizens trips, seeing all of the 50 states except for New Mexico. In 2009, Mildred moved to the Primrose Assisted Living Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to be closer to her son Stephen. On Saturday, May 25, 2013, she died at the assisted living center at the age of 98 years, one month and 13 days.

Mildred is lovingly remembered by her son, Stephen Fagerness and his wife Joan of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; three grandchildren, Christopher Fagerness and his wife Mary of Steen, Minnesota, Joshua Fagerness and his wife Kelli of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Melissa Hasek and her husband Alex of St. Cloud, Minnesota; four great-grandchildren, Gracie, Jed, Ethen and Elsa; two nieces; and two nephews. She is preceded in death by her husband, Harold; her parents; three sisters, Esther Hartman, Agnes Larson and Ruth Studt; and one brother, Leslie Studt.