Evelyn Helen Woltjen

She is survived by her four daughters, son-in-law and brother: Pamela Woltjen, Barbara Friedman and Gerald S. Friedman, Joanne Mouser, Mary Glantz and her brother, Alton Berg. She has six grandchildren, six great grandchildren and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, Helen and Art Berg, sister, Jeanne Grover Taylor and her husband, Jim.

Her maternal and paternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden in 1882 settling in Stockholm, South Dakota. She celebrated her Swedish heritage every Christmas by making a variety of Swedish cookies, kurv, lefse and rollepolse. She was still 100% Swedish even though she was 2nd generation born in the United States.

Music was a big part of her life from flute to piano to singing. In high school she won the state championship for flute playing. She loved singing and was in church choirs wherever she lived and she loved classical music. Her daughter, Mary, still has the rocking chair Evelyn used while singing lullabies to her children as she rocked them to sleep.

Evelyn met her husband, Jim “Doc” Woltjen, at Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, South Dakota during WWII. They were married at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Aberdeen on September 18, 1945. They both graduated from the University of Minnesota.

While raising four daughters she was an active volunteer. She was a Brownie and Girl Scout leader for all her daughters. Evelyn was also involved in the Officer’s Wives Club everywhere her husband was stationed and was President of that organization at Dyess AFB, in Abilene, Texas.

Evelyn had her private pilot’s license and was a member of the 49ers, a women’s pilot association. She flew herself and four daughters from Texas to South Dakota.

As an active church member and member of the Altar Guild she took care of the flowers, Altar cloths, preparing communion and delivering flowers to the ill and shut ins after services. She was on church council at Grace Lutheran Church, Abilene, Texas. She was also a member of the women’s circle. One of their projects was to make quilts for third world relief.

While living in Abilene, TX, Evelyn worked for the Health Department leading “As Parents Grow Older”, a national grant on the problems of aging, and learned how to deal with the problems of aging parents

Evelyn was a consummate hostess. She and her husband entertained often with pool parties and Chinese dinners.

In Abilene, Texas she was a member of Altrusa, a business women’s service club. They give scholarships to women to help pay for college expenses. She served as President for a year and was the newsletter editor for several years.

She was a Red Cross volunteer while stationed at HQ 5th Air Force in Tokyo; helping with blood drives from 1966 to 1969. While in Tokyo she taught English to Japanese ladies and formed lasting friendships.

Evelyn loved to sew and at one point she sewed an entire wardrobe for her daughter Pamela so that Pamela could attend church music camp.

Evelyn took Wilton cake decorating classes and prepared elaborate birthday and graduation cakes for her family. After preparing a cake with a clown climbing the side of the cake, the dog, Patches, very carefully ate the clown leaving the rest of the cake untouched. She also made frosted heart shaped cookies for Mary’s third grade class with each child’s name written with frosting on the cookie.

Gardening was one of her passions, growing vegetables every summer. While in Aberdeen in 1973 she convinced her two daughters still at home to weed the garden before going on vacation. Mary said “Look, there’s a worm.” This ended Joanne’s participation much to her mother’s dismay.

Evelyn worked as a bookkeeper after her children were grown and her husband had retired from the Air Force.

Evelyn learned to snow ski at age 64 to join her grandchildren on the slopes. The first year she broke both wrists at once but she continued to ski with her grandchildren, Justin, Derek, and Ariel for several years.

Evelyn learned to play bridge in college and it became one of her favorite pastimes. When in Abilene she started playing duplicate bridge.

She and her family most often spent summers with her parents at Pickerel Lake in northeast South Dakota as the family traversed the country to their next station.

Memorial Service and burial will be at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, 2900 Sheridan Road, St. Louis MO 63125 on August 28, 2015 at 1:15 PM