JOSEPHINE C. SVEDIN

Palmer resident Josephine Cornelia Svedin, 85, died Sept. 30, 2003, at the Palmer Pioneers' Home with family by her side.

Mrs. Svedin was born Sept. 22, 1918, in Ash Creek, Minn.

She attended a one-room country school during her early school years. She graduated from Buffalo Center High School in 1938. She earned her registered nursing degree from Lutheran Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in Minneapolis and then attended the University of Minnesota for a year of public health training. She served as a county public health nurse in northern Minnesota.

While living in Minneapolis, she started corresponding with Larry Svedin, a soldier serving in the Hawaiian Islands. Their war-time courtship by letter continued and they were married Jan. 5, 1946.

Mrs. Svedin was a full-time mother until the early 1960s when she returned to hospital nursing. In addition to working in public health, hospitals and nursing homes, she worked as an on-call special nurse for seriously ill patients. She was active in migrant children's health screening. She retired in 1982.

She was involved in the hospice program and the American Cancer Society. Her faith was apparent in her compassionate treatment of patients, family members and friends.

Mrs. Svedin loved listening to classical music and encouraged the love of music in her children. After her retirement, she was able to enjoy her vegetable and flower gardening full-time.

Her family wrote, "She enjoyed freezing and canning produce from her acre-large garden. She composted and recycled long before it became fashionable. There were only a few years during her 40s that her inexhaustible energy failed her when she successfully battled thyroid cancer. She was very grateful that cancer surgery did not leave her unable to sing."

Mrs. Svedin and her husband moved to Wasilla in 1995 to be near their children. She was a resident of the Anchorage Pioneers' Home before being accepted into the Palmer Pioneers' Home where she was lovingly cared for until her death.

Mrs. Svedin is survived by her husband Larry, and four children Lorraine Helms of Wasilla, Evie Brien-Wells of Texas, Ronald Svedin of Palmer and Leonard Svedin of Anchorage. Also surviving are nine grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, three sisters and two brothers. Her son Duane and two brothers preceded her in death.

A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Wasilla. Pastor Duane Hansen will officiate. Her grandchildren will be honorary pallbearers. She will be buried next summer near Hallock, Minn., next to her son, Duane.

Memorial donations may be made to the Activities Department of the Palmer Pioneers' Home or to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church for the purchase of landscaping plants.

Arrangements were made by Valley Funeral Home & Crematory in Wasilla.